If you're familiar with Canada's junior-racing scene, you've probably heard of Coach Pav. After three years as Ontario Ski Team head coach, Pavlina Sudrich is moving back to the Yukon to work with a couple U23 athletes and continue her coaching education.
This week's workout comes from Ezekiel Williams, FasterSkier's newest intern and an athlete at the Alberta World Cup Academy. This time last season, Williams said he really enjoyed doing what his team called, the Agility Sprint Track Workout. "Combine the agility work and lactate threshold building into the short 1:30 hour workout time and it makes for a solid early training-season session," he says.
Canadian Nationals came to a close last Saturday, with Ivan Babikov rolling to a 41-second victory over Kevin Sandau in the 50 k classic and Amanda Ammar notching a coveted senior title with a 54-second win over Emily Nishikawa in the 30 k at Blow Me Down Trails.
At Canadian Nationals on Tuesday, Ivan Babikov pulled out an 18.4-second victory of Paralympic gold medalist Graham Nishikawa, both of which were fresh off the plane from Europe and Russia, respectively. Heidi Widmer notched another national title as well.
On the final individual race of the Junior World Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic, Raphaël Couturier (CNEPH) finally grabbed the spotlight away from the Canadian women. He finished the 20 k skiathlon in 49:25.0 for 17th place in a race where Russia owned the podium, lead by Dmitriy Rostovtsev in 47:40.2. Couturier was happy, writing “17th is great to me, my best result this week and I’m for sure really satisfied.” He planned to ski...
Cendrine Browne of the Pierre-Harvey Training Centre is celebrating a lot of firsts this season. First year on Canada's National Junior Ski Team, first race trip to Europe, first age category win in a NorAm race. On Wednesday, she added her first top 15 at Junior World Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic, to the list.