February 7, 2009 (Strbske Pleso, Slovakia) – Canada’s Nordic Combined Team of Wes Savill, Barrett Martineau, Chanon Pretorius and Yukon De Leeuw skied to a 13th place finish today in the Normal Hill Team Gunderson 4X5 Km at the FIS World Nordic Junior Ski Championships. The American team of Colin Delaney, Taylor Fletcher, Brett Denney, and Nick Hendrickson were 9th.

In 12th position with 349.0 pts after the Ski Jumping portion of the event, behind Austrian , Japan, Finland, and Germany the Canadians started the Cross country race 3:07 behind the leaders and end up 6:42.5 back after the ski portion.

“We were pleased with the way the event went today compared to the individual 5km on Thursday. We all skied much better and now have more confidence for tomorrow. We are all looking forward to the 10km individual tomorrow and have a lot more confidence coming into the race. Today again we were very lucky with our equipment, having fast skis on the race course was a big help,” commented Wes Savill, Canada’s top junior athlete.

Complete results here

Results (brief)

1. Norway
2. France
3. Germany

9. USA
13. Canada

Nordic Combined World Cup

Canada’s Jason Myslicki finished 33rd today in the HS 100 with a 10km cross country race. “It was a tough competition. Not a lot of long jumps. I spent the first 7.5 km on my own which drained the bank account – not a lot of push and motivation for the last 2.5 km. I can bring forward something positive from this. With stronger jumps I can put more into the cross country race and move into top 20 finishes.” No Americans took part in Saturday’s World Cup event.

“I am happy with last week’s result, but even happier that it has given me confidence that I can push my level much higher still,” stated Myslicki. “I am confident that with a cross-country race that is more like my potential I could have finished in the top 15.”

Myslicki achieved a personal best in last week’s competition held in Chaux-Neuve, France. Jason’s single round jump of 87.0 m on the HS 100 Normal Hill put him in 15th position for the 10km Cross-country race where he jockeyed for position in a tightly packed field of 43 athletes. Jason’s solid jumping performance last week set the stage for an opportunity to get the most out of the Cross-country race. With consistent split times throughout most of the race Jason was well positioned for a top twenty finish but fell just short in the final sprint.

Myslicki will be competing again tomorrow (Sunday) in Seefeld.

Complete results here

Results (brief)

1. Mario Stecher (Aut)
2. Lukas Klapfer (Aut)
3. Jan Schmid (Nor)

33. Jason Myslicki (Can)