March 21, 2019 (Gatineau, QC) –  World Cup veteran Lenny Valjas of Toronto and Woodstock’s Bob Thompson, brought home a victory for Team Hardwood, at the Canadian Ski Championships, men’s team sprint.

In the relay each skier alternates with 2 laps each of the 1.3 km. course in classic technique.

Thompson led off for Team Hardwood, and there was tight competition among the top 4 teams throughout the race, with the lead often changing hands. It was only on the last hill that Lenny Valjas was able to make a little bit of a gap, and ski to victory, on what will be the final Canadian Championships race of his career.

Big Thunder Nordic’s (Thunder Bay), Malcolm Thompson and Graham Ritchie took silver, ½ second back, with Canmore’s Sam Hendry and Reed Godfrey finishing with the bronze.

Nakkertok’s Pierre Grall-Johnson and Dominique Moncion-Groulx were 4th, struggling a bit in the semis, when Grall-Johnson broke a pole.

Bob Thompson:” It was a real battle on each hill, great to get the win here with Lenny!”.

Lenny Valjas:” Bob skied awesome, he really kept us in the race. Really fun to finish my Nationals career on a relay day”.

In the women’s sprint, it was Nakkertok’s Hannah Shields and Zoë Williams that came through with a fairly comfortable win, ahead of Big Thunder’s Mia Serratore and Sadie White. White had a great anchor leg, coming back from a significant time deficit, to beat Nakkertok #2’s Bronwyn Williams and Katherine Denis, by 2 seconds at the line.

Hannah Shields: “My skis were super, super fast, thanks wax techs”.

Zoë Williams: “Hannah crushed it, so on the last lap, I just had to hold the lead”.

There were 77 Girls and 78 Boy’s teams entered in the Younger Junior, Challenge relay event. Foothills from Calgary showed good strength, winning gold and bronze in the Girl’s event and gold in the Boy’s competition. There was good local showings, with Nakkertok 5th and 6th in the Boy’s race and Nakkertok 5th and Chelsea Nordiq 9th in the girls.

In the Canadian College and University Championships, Lakehead’s Thunderwolves were the women’s champions, and Laval’s Rouge et Or won the men’s title.

Complete Results here.

Tuesday features the men 50k and woman’s 30k competitions, with the men starting at 9AM and expected to complete the course around 11AM.