December 17, 2013 (Rossland, BC) – Round two of the 2013/14 Haywood NorAm series took place in Rossland, BC, Dec. 14-15, beginning with a freestyle 1.4/1.6km sprint event on Saturday, followed by a 10/15km individual start classic distance event on Sunday.

Day 1
It was the Whitehorse brother and sister duo of Emily and Graham Nishikawa that led the Canadians at the Haywood NorAm Cup sprints today in Rossland, B.C. U23 skier Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt of Fondeurs-Laurentides won the qualifier in the skating sprints sponsored by Buff. It was a photo-finish in the final as Nishikawa edged out Foothills Nordic’s Heidi Widmer and Bouffard-Nesbitt for the NorAm title.

Today’s result will solidify Widmer’s grasp on a spot on Canada’s U23 team and Bouffard-Nesbitt’s race will help her stake a claim for a team position.

After the race Emily described it as ” Super fast, fun course but tough. Nice to have warmer weather after the cold in Sovereign Lake last weekend”.

US team member Erik Bjornsen of Alaska won a US dominated men’s final, with Miles Havlick of Sun Valley 2nd. Graham Nishikawa came through close behind in 3rd, after finishing only 14th in qualifying, matching his sister’s performance as top Canadian. Another Whitehorse athlete Knute Johnsgaard was 6th and in 7th was Nakkertok’s Patrick Stewart-Jones, the winner of the B final. Both Johnsgaard and Stewart-Jones are U23 athletes, and the young Canadians stepped up their game, looking to qualify for February’s World Championships.

Katherine Stewart-Jones from Nakkertok won the Junior Women’s race by a comfortable margin over Whitehorse’s Dahria Beatty and Anne-Marie Comeau of Mont Ste. Anne. Jones and Beatty are clear leaders at this time in the World Junior team selection process.

On the junior men’s side Matthew Saurette of Rocky Mountain Racers, the top qualifier, continued his strong Buff sprint performance from last weekend, with his 2nd gold of the season. Saurette called it a “Tough course but sweet victory”.  A pair of Big Thunder Nordic skiers, Angus Foster and Victor Hopper claimed the other spots on the podium.

Day 1 Results
Qualifying Results
Sprint Brackets
Final Results

At the FISU Games Harry Seaton of Lahead University qualified 25th in the classic sprint races that were dominated by the Russians (5 of 6 medals). Seaton failed to move on from teh quarter finals finishing 29th in the race that was won by Maxim Kovalev.

On the women’s side Camille Pepin of U. Laval just missed qualifying in 32nd. Russia’s Oxana Usatova won the final in a heat that included 4 of her teammates.

FISU Games Day 1 Results
Men’s Results
Women’s Results

Day 2
The Haywood NorAm Cup circuit wrapped up in Rossland, B.C. today with classic, interval start events.

Kate Fitzgerald of Alaska won the women’s 10k event thanks to a strong second lap, beating out the early leader Whitehorse’s Emily Nishikawa by 14 seconds. Another 10 seconds later was Canmore Nordic’s Amanda Ammar, and in 5th was her club teammate Zoe Roy, the 3rd Canadian.  Foothills skier Heidi Widmer was the top U23 skier in 9th.

Anne-Marie Comeau of Club Nordique Mont Ste. Anne had a strong race to top the junior category, 40 seconds ahead of fellow Mt. Ste. Anne skier Frederique Vezina with Whitehorse’s Dahria Beatty in 3rd.

Kevin Sandau from Foothills Nordic won the men’s race, setting the pace on the first lap and holding off a hard charging Sylvan Ellefson of the U.S., at the finish. Graham Nishikawa of Whitehorse was 3rd, 30 seconds back,and Andy Shields of Lappe Nordic skied through as 3rd Canadian and the top U23 skier on the day.

In the Junior Men’s event Scott Hill of Team Hardwood dominated the race, winning by more than a minute over a fine performance by 16 year old Caelan McLean from Whitehorse. Alexis Dumas of Skibec was 3rd

Day 2 Results here.

The Haywood NorAms now have a break until setting up in Canmore, January 8-12. The races in Canmore will be very important for many domestic skiers as up for grabs are a couple of spots on the Olympic team and the World Junior and U23 championship teams.

On the Olympic front, Graham and Emily Nishikawa have shown some good results so far this season and could be in the running for a place on the team if they can continue those performances at the trials.

The Canmore races will be the 3rd set of trials for the World Junior and U23 championships and to date a number of skiers have shown good performances that should give them a good chance for making the team. It will be interesting to see what effect the 3 week break and travel home and back will have on results in the final trials in Canmore.

At this time among the top contenders for a position on the U23 team are Knute Johnsgaard and Patrick Stewart-Jones on the men’s side and Heidi Widmer and Olivia Bouffard Nesbitt for the women’s team. For the juniors Katherine Stewart-Jones, Dahria Beatty and Anne-Marie Comeau have shown strongest on the women’s side and Matthew Saurette and Scott Hill look strong for the men.

At the World University Games Canadians participated in a mixed team, skating relay. Andrea Lee (U. New Mexico) and Harry Seaton (Lakehead U) were 11th in one semifinal and Camille Pepin (U Laval) and Jordan Cascagnette (Nipissing U) were 14th, finishing 21st and 28th respectively. The race was won by the Russian duo of Evgeniia Oschepkova and Ermil Vokuev.

The skiers next compete on Tuesday in 5 and 10k free technique events.

FISU Games Day 2 Results here