How do you follow a strong showing at the National Long-Distance Championships?
XCOttawa.ca followed up by winning both the men's and women's sprint relays the next day.
The men got the winning started. It can be difficult to switch gears from the almost relaxing pace of a 50km race to the high tempo needed for a 1.5km sprint. After a long race in tough conditions the day before everyone's legs were tired but Craig Storey, David Zylberberg and Karl Saidla were up to the challenge. It wasn't until the last lap that the team took the lead and never looked back. At the finish line they were 32s up on the team from Skibec and 50s up on team consisting of two other XCOttawa.ca members, Kris Doyon and Ian Muray, as well as Ian's brother Daniel Murray all skiing for North Highlands Nordic.
The women needed to borrow Michelle Zubrack of Manitoba as all the other XCOttawa.ca women were wrapped up in school work. But even as an unofficial entry they made things exciting. The first lap was a little shaky. Anna-Spring Doerfler had a crash on the first lap, and Megan McTavish had problems with a pole strap. After that all three skied impressively and rallied to bring themselves in striking distance of the home town Mont Ste-Anne team. It came down to a sprint between Genevieve Allard and Megan McTavish, with Megan squeaking out a 2s victory.
XCOttawa.ca (Storey Craig, Zylberberg David, Saidla Karl) 0:47:13
Skibec 1 (Ruel Vincent, Vachon Denis, Nadeau Charles) 0:47:45 +0:00:32
North-High Nordic (Murray Ian, Doyon Kris, Murray Daniel) 0:48:07 +0:00:54
XCOttawa.ca-Winnepeg (Unofficial) (Zubrack Michelle, Doerfler Anna-Spring, McTavish Megan) 0:56:13
MSA 1 (Bisson Christine, Lalumiere Anne-Marie, Tremblay-St-Germain Amïelie) 0:56:15 +0:00:02
Fondeurs 1 (Allard Emilie, Bouffard-Nesbitt Audrey, Allard Genevieve) 0:57:42 +0:01:29
Complete Results
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