Men's start © courtesy of CCC

February 03, 2014 (Cantley, QC) – After a 20-centimetre overnight snowfall, Mother Nature cooperated and provided some warmer temperatures and a bit of sun for the final day of the Haywood NorAm Easter Canadian Championships and Para-Nordic Nationals. Trails were pretty firm as the men went out on their 20k mass start, classic race.

As the race progressed the lead group was gradually whittled down from 10 at 5k, to 5 at 10k. Colin Abbott and Graham Nishikawa of Whitehorse, Raphaël Couturier of Skibec, Michael Somppi of Lappe and Christopher Hamilton of Big Thunder looked to be the ones that would decide the podium.

Graham Nishikawa © courtesy of CCC

At approximately 13k, the major climb, Monte McCarthy would prove to be the decider as Graham Nishikawa made a major move, to gain a 17 second lead by the final lap.

Chasing Graham were Colin Abbott and and Michael Somppi, with Chris Hamilton a couple of seconds back.

Graham Nishikawa © courtesy of CCC

On the final lap Graham increased his lead for a 30 second win over Michael Somppi, who beat out Chris Hamilton in a photo-finish. Kevin Sandau made a strong recovery after breaking a pole early, finishing 4th ahead of Abbott who was 5th.

Somppi (r) and Hamilton tie © courtesy of CCC

After the race Graham expressed that it was really fun to see the next generation of skiers out on the courses at Nakkertok. He felt that the depth and quality of competition at the event, particularly in the junior classes, bodes well for the future of Canadian skiing.

Women
The women’s race followed a similar progression going from 6 to 3 at the end of the 1st and 2nd 5 k loops. Starting out on the final loop It was Zoe Roy of Foothills Nordic, Alysson Marshall of Larch Hills and Andrea Dupont of Rocky Mountain Racers that looked to fill the podium. It was only a matter of who was going where.

Open Women start © courtesy of CCC

As the racers approached the final hill Zoe Roy had a small lead over Alysson Marshall, with Andrea Dupont a couple of seconds behind. Roy had been pushing the pace on the uphills, but at the top of the final climb Alysson Marshall was able to push herself over the top the quickest and never looked back as she captured the win.

Zoe Roy © courtesy of CCC

Andrea Dupont managed to catch and overtake Roy on the final hill, to finish 2nd, by a bit over 2 seconds.

There was quite a battle for 4th and 5th all race between Alannah Maclean of Walden and Erin Tribe of Hardwood. They crossed the line in what seemed to be in identical positions, with a photo-finish and the official results to determine if the race ended for them in a tie.

Alysson Marshall © courtesy of CCC

The Junior Women’s class saw a close battle for the entire race between Emilie Stewart-Jones of Nakkertok and Ember Large of Edmonton Nordic. At the finish it was Large that beat the local favourite by .2 seconds. Third place went to Andrée-Anne Théberge of Skibec.

Evan Palmer Charrette of Lappe was the top Junior Man, followed by Nakkertok’s Colin Foley and Julien Lamoureux of Montériski.

Para-Nordic and the younger categories results are to be run later in the day.

Day 3 results here.

The next Haywood NorAm races are the Western Canadian Championships from Caledonia Nordic, Prince George, B.C. February 13th to 16th.