Sunday, January 11th concluded the racing at World Junior Trials at Highlands Nordic. The race was a interval start freestyle race, with the men completing 15 km and the women 10 km. All the races were completed on a particularly long and difficult 5 km loop, which made for a challenging day of racing for all.
The weather was considerably warmer and more enticing than the earlier days of racing at this competition, a balmy -10 °C, and hard packed conditions, overall a great day for racing. XC Ottawa had great skis thanks to excellent waxing by John Surronent and Peter Rozmovits. The wax of the day was vauhti HF blue, and finished with a HFC 15.1 block (corked/brushed/structured).
In the men, Steffan Lloyd continued his barely-top-30 trend with a 30th place finish. Arthur Ayers posted a 42nd place finish, with Andre Marchand very close behind in 44th. Training partner Colin Abbott had an excellent day, finishing in 19th position, and Mark Rajack in 60th position.
Amongst the women, Sheila Keiley finished in 14th position, closely followed by teammate Kyla Vanderzwet. Liza Rozina was in 18th position, Ingrid Hagberg in 20th, and Katie McMahon in 30th. XC Ottawa alumni Holly Jones also posted a strong finish in 22nd position.
Ian Austen took some excellent photos of the event, shown below. The full gallery can be see at his website.
Andre Marchand catching to Guelph skier Connor Paddock.
Steffan Lloyd cresting the hill into the stadium after half of his first 5 km.
Logan Hong on her first lap.
Katie on her first lap
Sheila Keiley.
Kyla Vanderzwet
A special thanks to all the sponsors who helped make this racing weekend possible, and especially John Suuronen and Peter Rozmovits who volunteered their time to support us and wax for us!
"Pack your paddle."