March 21, 2015  (Thunder Bay, ON) – It was anything but spring-like as the racers prepared for the long distance, skate races at Lappe Nordic Centre. The temperature was hovering in the mid, minus teens, with a strong wind and sunny skies.

Michael Somppi leads through the stadium at 20km © CCC

There looked to be some tight competition on the day with Skibec looking to foil Nakkertok’s aspirations of a 6th National Championship club title, trailing by only 60 points. There aslo looked to be a possibility of a significant change in the Divisional Championships, as Ontario had surpassed Quebec, title holder since 2011, and B.C. had moved ahead of Alberta for 3rd, with only 1 day of racing remaining.

The men’s 50k mass start was first on the schedule and among the favourites were Ivan Babikov of Foothills Nordic the 2014 champion and Michael Somppi, the home club racers, who had claimed 2 gold medals so far this week.

As with many 50km there was a fair pack of racers together in the early stages but the twisty trails and very fast conditions narrowed things down to  a smaller group including Babikov and Somppi by 20k. The lead group included Ivan’s team-mates Kevin Sandau and Jesse Cockney, Graeme Killick of Ptarmigan Nordic and Team Hardwood’s Scott Hill.

Senior Men's podium © CCC

Around 40k Michael Somppi decided to raise the pace and only Ivan was able to follow. Kevin Sandau dropped a bit back and was skiing on his own.

On the final lap Michael continued to press the pace and pulled away to claim his 3rd gold of the Championships by 28 seconds. Kevin Sandau was 3rd another 20 seconds back. With the win Michael gets his name on the Rolf Petterson trophy, that is awarded to the Canadian 50 k champion.

The Junior Men’s 30k saw a lead pack develop fairly quickly as Skibec’s Philippe Boucher and Alexis Dumas led the way. Also in the lead group was Luke Brown of Minneapolis, Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier of Fondeurs-Laurentide, and Joey Foster of Team Hardwood.

Joey Foster at the finish © CCC

The Skibec duo led the way for much of the first 3 laps but over the last 7k it was Izquierdo-Bernier and Foster that pulled away.  At the finish Foster cruised to a 2 second win over Izquierdo-Bernier. Luke Brown was another 30 seconds back for 3rd and Alexis Dumas won bronze as the 3rd Canadian.

Foster captured his 3rd gold of the 2015 Haywood Ski Nationals and is the son of 4 time x-c ski Olympian, Angela Schmidt-Foster.

The women’s 30k quickly formed a group at the fornt of Whitehorse’s Emily Nishikawa and Dahria Beatty, Cendrine Browne of Fondeurs-Laurentide and Andrea Dupont of Rocky Mountain Racers.

Cendrine Browne © Jenn Jackson

On the last lap it was Nishikawa and Browne battling it out for the lead with Browne capturing the win in a photo-finish by .03 seconds. Dahria Beatty claimed bronze 6 seconds later.

In Junior Girls Hannah Mehain of Sovereign Lake was the winner by less than a second over Zoë Williams of Nakkertok. It was a close finish 6 seconds later for bronze as Hollyburn’s Eliza-Jane Kitchen edged out Nakkertok’s Alison Pouw by 8, 100th’s of a second.

In the Junior Women’s 20k, Jenn Jackson of Team Hardwood set the early pace followed by a group of five other skiers.

By the mid way point Jackson and Maya McIssac-Jones of Rocky Mountain Racers had built up a 9 second lead on the chase group of Whitehorse’s Annah Hanthorn, Skinouk’s Sophie Carrier-Laforte, Nakkertok’s Katherine Stewart-Jones and Sadie White of Big Thunder.

Jackson sped through the last lap, finishing 30 seconds ahead of McIssac-Jones for the win. Third was Sophie Carrier-Laforte.

Jenn Jackson © CCC

In the Juvenile Boys 10k Antoine Laforte got the win, 1 second ahead of Sam Hendry of Canmore. Another second later was Finn Dodgson of Team Hardwood.

B.C. continued their dominance in Juvenile Girls, sweeping the podium with Kaia Andal of Caledonia Nordic, Molly Miller of Kimberley and Anna Goodwin of Hollyburn.

In the final Para-Nordic competitions all competitors raced 10k. The Men’s standing competition saw Jesse Bachinsky claim the victory for Kenora-MB and Caroline Bisson winning the women’s event for Chelsea Nordiq.

The sitski competitions saw Ethan Hess of Nordic Racers winning the men’s race and Tanya Quesnel of Laurentian Nordic coming through with the win in the women’s competition.

That was the final day of racing from the Haywood Ski Nationals 2015. Check back tomorrow to find out the Club, Division and Individual Aggregate champions and standings.

Next year the Nationals go north to Whitehorse, Yukon.

Results
Para-Nordic Results