The Eastern Canadian Championships are fast approaching, and we can guarantee it will be another high action race event this year at Nakkertok South!
The racing schedule is as follows for the three day Mini-Tour:
Friday: Classic sprints for the Open Categories (1600 m)
Saturday: A mid-distance skate race (10km for Open Women, 15km for Open Men)
Sunday: Long distance classic (15km for Open Women and 30km for Open Men)
Nakkertok is always an amazing venue for any race and has hosted many successful Eastern Championships. With the increasing number of racers, some changes have been made for this year that should improve it even more. Rather than one club hosting the event, this year is a joint initiative between the clubs of the Ottawa-Gatineau ski community. This way the weekend is sure to flow smoothly, especially with more than 650 competitors registered.
A very exciting update for this year is the new sprint course. XC Ottawa has been lucky to get a preview of this new course, from seeding it with grass on trail clearing day, to doing hard intervals up the new hill. The reason for this new sprint course – homologation – means it has the required distribution of climbing and flats to be FIS sanctioned.
The skate and classic races on Saturday and Sunday will consist of 5k loops including favorites like Montée McCarthy, Dirk’s Dive, and Chute Charron.
XC Ottawa is looking forward to racing in
our backyard, and will be posting reports on each day of competition – check
back often!
(Note: due to the weather forecast for this week, Nakkertok has closed the club for Tuesday and Wednesday, and hopefully courses will be open to preview on Thursday. You can check nakkertok.ca or the race website for further updates)
Official Race Website (with course maps)
http://canadianeasternschampionships.wordpress.com/
Trail conditions and grooming updates
Race Results will be posted at www.zone4.ca
Not racing? There are still opportunities to volunteer!
https://easterns2013.ivolunteer.com/
The team is feeling "fresh" and has a strong reputation of many great performances at this event. Highlights from previous years:
Megan McTavish 6th overall last year!
Immaculate tracks and
great volunteers preparing for the start of last years classic handicapped/mass
start event.
Lee Hawkings chasing former XC Ottawa'er Colin Abbott. This year Lee Hawkings is a fan favorite and looking for another battle with the returning World U23 skier, Colin Abbott.
Kyle and Andre have been duking it out on Dirk's Dive since 2011. I'm sure this year will be no different!
The hill on last years sprint course. This year it extends up into the woods, past the official in the red bib. A good leg burn for all!
Veteran Karl Saidla is looking forward to showing all those young pups how to ski the 30km on Sunday!
Wax Guru John "Speedy Skis" Suuronnen is already hard at work! We couldn't do it without him, that's for sure!
Looking forward to seeing everyone out there this weekend. Good luck to all the racers!
"OWL Rafting - The Mighty Ottawa River"