Sovereign Lake’s annual loppet became an international competition as Petr Pavol of the Czech Republic finished in first place. Renowned competitors such as Olympians Leslie Hall and Laura McCabe who had participated in the Sparkling Hill Masters World Cup hadn’t had their fill of racing yet and stayed on to race the 30km freestyle loppet.
“He was looking forward to take part in this race as a finish or culmination of his results from the masters,” said a translator for Pavol. In the SHMWC Paval was a two times gold winner and one bronze.
“He was really disappointed that he hadn’t medaled in the marathon race, in the first day of racing in the SHMWC so therefore he was insisting to take part in this one… He was trying to be first.” Pavol finished his race in a time of 1 hour and 22 minutes.
It also seems that Paval was making the most out of his time at Sovereign. When asked of his impression of the ski area his response was, “Skiing at Sovereign Lake is the best skiing in my life. Really, really.”
Pavol had new competition for the race, as second place went to local skier David Harbocian who wasn’t old enough to race as a master skier in the previous week of racing.
“We had a pack of five to eight people at the start, then we went down Silver Queen, some Czech racer decided to attack so I went with him for a few minutes and he decided to drop me,” said Harbocian.
There were a couple of sections where you would go and turn a corner and get a blast of head wind,” said Harboacian. “Racing was a great, so was the temperature, the snow was fast.”
Harbocian took the first place result for the men’s 18-29 age category in the 30km race with a time of 1:25.
The fastest women’s time in the 30km was American Olympian, Leslie Hall with a time of 1:31.
In the men’s 15km race the men’s fastest time was Jon Sader who finished in 49 minutes. In the women’s category, Theresa Korobanik finished with the fastest time of 1:02.
Gareth Williams was the fastest in the 7km race finishing in 23:58 and Dana Allen in 30:50. Ian Oliphant and Keeya Corbett were first in the kids 7-9. Mitchell Bond and Sofie Steinruck were the quickest of the six and under category.
