The 2018 Blink Ski Festival continued in full force on Friday and Saturday, with cross-country and biathlon prologues, 10- and 15-kilometer cross-country races and biathlon mass starts all taking place on Friday, followed by sprints on Saturday. Results: Men’s cross-country prologue After the elite men’s prologue, athletes geared up for a men’s and women’s biathlon prologues. Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø took the men’s biathlon prologue win in a time of 10:30.2 after two misses (1+1)....
With the 2017/2018 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to the Canadian Continental Skiers of the Year. Previous categories: Collegiate Skiers of the Year | Para-Nordic Skiers of...
(Note: This article has been corrected to reflect that Evan Palmer-Charrette won his second national title last weekend.) 2018 Canadian Ski Nationals (Thunder Bay, Ontario): 30/50 k classic mass starts On the final day of racing at Canadian Ski Nationals in Thunder Bay, two National Team Development Centre (NTDC) Thunder Bay athletes topped the podium on their local trails at the Lappe Nordic Centre on Saturday. Katherine Stewart-Jones and Evan Palmer-Charrette won national titles in...
Canadian Ski Nationals (Thunder Bay, Ontario): Freestyle pursuits and sprints Ski Nationals continued Tuesday and Wednesday at Lappe Nordic in Thunder Bay, with 10- and 15-kilometer freestyle pursuits (based on second-straight title as the first Canadian in the pursuit, placing second overall, 1:03.4 behind Gregg. Annika Hicks (AWCA) was the second Canadian in third overall (+1:16.3), up from fifth in the classic race. Katherine Stewart-Jones (NTDC Thunder Bay/National U25 Team) placed fourth in the pursuit...
Canadian Ski Nationals (Thunder Bay, Ontario): Team sprints + 5/10 k classic Canada’s 2018 Ski Nationals opened this past weekend at Lappe Nordic in Thunder Bay, Ontario, with classic team sprints on Saturday followed by 5- and 10-kilometer classic interval starts on Sunday. Nakkertok topped the podium in both the open men’s and women’s team sprints. In the men’s final, Nakkertok’s Dominique Moncion-Groulx and Patrick Stewart-Jones won by 1.95 seconds over Barrie Cross Country (BXC)...
U.S. SuperTour (Ishpeming, Michigan): Friday, Saturday and Sunday The SuperTour circuit ventured to the Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming, Michigan, this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday for three days of racing Feb. 16-19. Day 1 In Friday’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprints, Kevin Bolger of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) posted a 2.69-second victory in the men’s final over his teammate Jack Hegman in second and 3.02 seconds ahead of David Norris of Alaska...
IBU Open European Championships (Ridnaun-Val Ridanna, Italy): Single mixed & mixed relays Susan Dunklee and Lowell Bailey teamed up for the final day of the 2018 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Open European Championships in Ridnaun, Italy, and raced to a bronze medal in the single mixed relay. The American duo, both of which earned individual medals at last year’s IBU World Championships, finished just 9.1 seconds out of first, which went to Norway’s Thelka Brun-Lie...
The third NorAm of the season in Mont Sainte-Anne (MSA), Québec, was also a Canadian selection event for next month’s Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, as well as Junior and U23 World Championships, which start later this month in Goms, Switzerland. The original schedule of racing from Saturday, Jan. 6, to Tuesday, Jan. 9, with a backup race day on Wednesday had to be modified when Saturday and Sunday were colder than International Ski Federation...
U.S. Cross Country Championships (Anchorage, Alaska): Freestyle sprints Women’s report Caitlin Patterson racked up her second-straight national title at this year’s 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships and Reese Hanneman topped the men’s freestyle sprint final on Friday at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. In the first of two sprints at 2018 U.S. nationals, Patterson, the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) skier who won the Complete results *** NorAm Trials (Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec): Classic sprints Canada’s...
It’s been a week or two since the last NorAm of Canada’s Continental Cup series (10 days to be precise), but without further ado, here are the quotes from the winners and top finishers. To recap, the American husband-and-wife combo Brian and Caitlin Gregg came to Rossland, British Columbia, and dominated the three-day mini tour, with Caitlin winning all three races (a freestyle sprint and 10 k classic and men’s sprint on his home trails...
NorAm mini tour (Rossland, B.C.): 10/15 k freestyle pursuits Team Gregg ended the Rossland NorAm mini tour with another double win, with American Caitlin Gregg and her husband Brian Gregg winning the 10- and 15-kilometer freestyle pursuits, respectively, at the Black Jack Ski Club trails. Caitlin capped the long weekend with her third-straight win, a 48.28-second victory over former Canadian biathlete Zina Kocher (Foothills Nordic). Caitlin started first and was first across the finish in 29:02.86,...
NorAm Mini Tour (Rossland, B.C.): Freestyle sprints On Day 2 of NorAm racing in Rossland, British Columbia, Julien Locke, of the Black Jack Ski Club and Canadian National U25 Team, won the men’s 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint final on his home trails by just one-hundredth of a second over Evan Palmer-Charrette, of the National Team Development Centre (NTDC) Thunder Bay, in 2:38.13. NTDC Thunder Bay had two on the podium with Julian Smith in third, 0.4...
![Sovereign NorAm/SuperTour Rewind: Craftsbury Women on Top; Thompson and Torchia Take Wins [Updated Photo Gallery]](https://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/Sov2017FLCPatterson2.jpg)
VERNON, British Columbia — For the second consecutive year, the Sovereign Lake NorAm was combined with the SuperTour for an expanded field of racers. The warm, sunny, and windless conditions on both days were a welcome change from the previous season’s cold weather and falling snow. What didn’t change was the ‘south of the border’ feel to the leaderboard. The race formats were similar to that of the Davos World Cup, just nine time...
Editor’s note: Canada 150 Rollerski Race, drew more than 40 of Canada’s top development skiers and Americans Caitlin and Brian Gregg to showcase rollerski racing as part of the city’s Canada Day festivities. The day began with both men and women racing 1.5-kilometer time-trial sprint qualifiers on a two-lap, 750-meter course. Evan Palmer-Charrette qualified first in a time of 3:03.71 minutes, followed by Julian Smith in second (+3.64) and Jack Carlyle in third (+5.05). In the women’s qualifier, Caitlin Gregg won the qualifier by more than nine seconds...
Evan Palmer-Charrette, of Thunder Bay’s National Team Development Centre (NTDC), had an eventful 2016/2017 season, starting with compartment syndrome surgery in the summer to remedy an issue that had plagued him for four years, his classic sprint at Canadian Ski Nationals, behind two U.S.-based university skiers, which made him the top Canadian. “Awesome to be Canadian champion, but a surprise for sure in a classic sprint,” he told FasterSkier at nationals, reflecting his preference for distance...
On May 6, Sovereign Lake hosted a classic time trial with a twist. Instead of using a standard interval start, each skier drew a number, did that many pushups, put their skis on, and started the 5-kilometre, one-lap course. When one skier hit the 5-metre line, the next skier stepped up to the pushup station. Troy Hudson, general manager of the Sovereign Lake Nordic Club (SLNC), came up with the format the night before, so the special equipment...
With the 2016/2017 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding Canadian skiers competing primarily, but not exclusively, at the Continental Cup level. *** Katherine Stewart-Jones, U25 National team/NTDC Thunder Bay/Nakkertok...
Spring Series opened earlier this week in Fairbanks, Alaska, with skiathlon races on Monday and freestyle sprints on Wednesday to wrap up the 2017 SuperTour season. Here is a photo gallery from
U.S. SuperTour Finals (Fairbanks, Alaska): Freestyle sprints On Wednesday the 2017 U.S. SuperTour Finals, also referred to as Spring Series, the last of the year’s elite level sprints went down in Fairbanks, Alaska. The women raced a 1.5-kilometer course while the men skied a slightly longer 1.6 k course, both run at the Birch Hill Recreation Area in Fairbanks. Earlier in the week, Jessie Diggins of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team and U.S. Ski...
CANMORE, Alberta — Canadian Nationals went to Canmore for 2017 and Canmore delivered. Famous for challenging courses, well-trained volunteers, and erratic weather; the Canmore Nordic Centre showed all three at their best during the eight-day event. Each day delivered warm sun, cold winds, snow flurries, and warm winds (often all occurring in a single race lap) to more than 600 racers. The first races each morning were held on fast, transformed snow that transitioned to slow and soft in the afternoon. While...