December 09, 2012 (Sovereign Lake, BC) – Sovereign Lake successfully hosted it’s first day of Teck BC Cup and Haywood NorAm classic distance races. In the BC Cup the younger age categories results were topped by Okanagan clubs while the older age categories were trumped by the participants from neighbouring Alberta.

The Haywood NorAM field included and international race field, topped by Swedish speedster Jens Eriksson in the men’s 15km division with a time of 41:53 and by Brittany Webster of Alberta in the 10km women’s division in 33:16. Both held strong leads in their respective fields.

Eriksson finished 25 seconds ahead of second place Patrick Stweart-Jones of Nakkertok (AWCA) and 26 seconds ahead of third place Graeme Killick of Ptarmigan (AWCA). Webster finished 19 seconds ahead of Annika Hicks of Canmore (AWCA) who was followed closely by Frederiquw Vezina (0.4 seconds behind.)

The men’s division started out with teams sticking close together in the tracks and appearing to work together. Into the second lap the Swedish team had moved apart as Eriksson explained his team-mates ‘were tired’, so he passed them to take the clean lead. Eriksson was pleased to be able to race prior to Canmore.  “It’s very good to have this race. We were here preparing for the World Cup race in Canmore next weekend.”

Of today’s race he said. “It’s really fun. The track is really tough. It’s a good World Cup track. It was quite calm the first two laps and then in the last lap I tried to push as hard as I can, so I won. It’s good.”

Webster stated that watching the World Cup in Quebec in the morning before her race helped give her motivation towards her race today. “I was excited to race. For Webster, today’s race for her was also a warm up to next weekend. “The World Cup is next week and for us it’s really important to put in a good hard pace from start to finish.”

In the Teck BC Cup, the Masters raced similar distances, with the fastest 15km race by Aaron Scott of Spokane in the men’s division and Nancy Burden of Edmonton the fastest in the women’s 10km.

The Junior races had large numbers with Thomas Hardy of Larch Hills in first for Junior boys 2 (31:43) and Anders Cowper of RMR, Alberta first in Junior Boys 1 (31:46). Danielle Vrielink of RMR was first in Junior Girls 2 7.5km (16.46) and Madison Fraser of North Bay first in Junior 1 (29:01).

In Juvenille Boys 1 5km Riley Millar of Canmore took first place (17:29) while David Walker of Telemark was first in Juvenille Boys 2 (16:56). Sarah McLean of Foothills took first in Juvenille Girls 1 5km (19:26) and Lauren Turcot of Canmore was first in Juvenille Girls 2 (19:16)

Midget Boys 1 did 2km with Michael Murdoch of Whistler finishing first and Jackson Howatt finishing first in Midget Boys 2.
Maxine Forder of Hollyburn finished first in Midget Girls 1 skiing 4km and Annika Ackermann of Kimberly finished first in Midget Girls 2.

In the younger ages, Bantam Boys and Girls did 4km. Pee Wee Boys and Girls skid 1.4km and Atom Boys and Girls skied 0.8km.

Full results HERE.