Cross Country Canada Names Nine to 2015 World Championships Team

(Press release)

The following athletes were nominated for selection to the 2015 Senior World Championships team that will compete in the Ostersund World Cups Feb.14-15 and the WSC in Falun, Sweden Feb.18 – March 1.

Selection Overview

1. Purpose: Podium results.
2. Objectives:
   a)    Because of the implications to CCC’s funding, medal potential athletes will be the primary focus.
   b)    Two podium results.
3. Selection process: The selections were made by the High Performance Director upon advisement and recommendations from the NST Head Coach in collaboration with the other WCT coaches.

Selection Process and Ranking

The role of the HPD is to apply the criteria as written and scrutinize the selection recommendations of the Head Coach. The selection criteria for this event were based on key performance events in 2014-15: World Cups, Nor-Am events and U23-WJC.

In accordance with the NST selection criteria 10.8, the following athletes were selected according to the following order of priorities, considering the maximum entry of four athletes per event (except the team sprint), budget and the purpose of the trip.

1. Athletes with a top 12 distance or top 12 sprint result on the 2014-15 WC. Alex Harvey, Ivan Babikov
2. Athletes in the current FIS red group and athletes having been on the podium at World Cup or World Senior Championships in the last 2 years were selected. Alex Harvey, Devon Kershaw

The NST Head Coach recommended additional athletes to the HPD based on demonstrated and compelling reasons for selection that are evidence based in order to substantiate the recommendations. 10.5 will be used as standards for these recommendations. The HPD agreed with and supported the coach’s recommendation to select the following athletes based on the following international results:

• Len Valjas: 14-Dec-14 Davos sprint qualified 12th-final 13th; 21-Dec-14 sprint qualified 12th, final 18th
• Jess Cockney: Davos WC 21-Dec-14 sprint qualifier 23rd
• Emily Nishikawa: Davos WC 14-Dec-14 10K cl 29th
• Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt: 12th 2015 U23 skiathlon
• Perianne Jones: Best woman’s WC sprint result Lillehammer WC 5-Dec-14 sprint 33rd; WC trials sprint Highlands Nordic 10-Jan-15 qualifying and final 1st
• Graeme Killick: Best non-World Cup Team WC distance result: Rybinsk WC 25-Jan-15 skiathlon 40th; Davos WC 20-Dec-14 15K C 41st; WC trials skiathlon Highlands Nordic 10-Jan-15 1st