Haywood LIVE Report: Another very busy week of ski racing

This trip is designed to give the next generation of Canadian athletes much needed international experience. The athletes competing are:
Cendrine Browne
Patrick Stewart-Jones
Alysson Marshall
Michael Somppi
Andrea Dupont
Kevin Sandau
Dahria Beatty
Andy Shields
Alexis Dumas

cccski.com February 10, 2015. The racing season just gets busier over the next week and the next month. Starting on Valentine’s Day, Saturday, there are 4 major events taking place for Canadian skiers.

1) Feb 13,14: World Cup Oestersund, Sweden
This is the last World Cup before the World Championships start in Falun on Wednesday of next week. The athletes for Oestersund and Falun were named in a selection announcement last week. The events are a classic individual sprint on Saturday and interval start, free-technique races on Sunday.

It is a mix of younger and more experienced athletes representing Canada at Oestersund and Falun, with Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt just being added after some strong racing at the recent U23 World Championships in Kazakhstan. The Canadians are looking to rebound from a bit of a disappointing Sochi Olympics and the weekend’s races will be a good test of performance levels leading into the Worlds.

The Oestersund sprint course: Over biathlon wall and through the grandstand. FIS photo

Alex Harvey has been Canada’s strongest World Cup competitor this year and will lead the team along with more veteran competitors, Devon Kershaw and Ivan Babikov. Devon and Alex will be looking to regain the magic of the 2011 Worlds in Oslo where they won the Team sprint competition. Lenny Valjas and Jess Cockney will probably have more of a sprint focus, while Graeme Killick has earned a spot as one of Canada’s up and coming distance racers.

Perianne Jones leads the women’s team and will be looking to improve on her 23rd place sprint finish in Sochi. Emily Nishikawa is another young skier that made the team and has been the strongest Canadian this year in distance racing. She is joined by Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt who is “on a roll” after 12, 17 and 21st place finishes at the U23 Worlds.

Race Schedules: Note there is on occasion some changes to race starts from original schedules, and TV programming may not be synchronized with the complete race. Check the organizer’s website to verify timing and double check the time difference listed.

CET= Central European Time
EST= Eastern Standard Time

Event Date	Event	Nation			CET Time	EST Time
Date	Place	Category	Discipline	Gender
14-15.02.2015	FIS World Cup	SWE
14.02.2015	Oestersund	WC	SP C Final	M	12:30	6:30
14.02.2015	Oestersund	WC	SP C Final	L	12:30	6:30
14.02.2015	Oestersund	SPWQ	SP C Qual	M
14.02.2015	Oestersund	SPWQ	SP C Qual	L
15.02.2015	Oestersund	WC	10 km F	L	10:00	4:00
15.02.2015	Oestersund	WC	15 km F	M	13:00	7:00

The races can generally be watched on the following website http://www.sportlemon.tv/. Eurosport UK are generally providing live coverage in English (schedule) which can often be streamed through the sportlemon.tv website. Note television doesn’t necessarily cover the complete race live. Complete event coverage is usually available using the subscription based Eurosport player, however your computer’s IP address must be based in Europe.

More Race information FIS provide live updates on Live timing, and post race video highlights.
FIS Cross Country Website Results, Press Releases, Video

2) Feb 14-18: IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup, Asahikawa, Japan
The races are being held in Asahikawa Japan, north of the former Olympic site in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido. Unlike other Para-Nordic World Cups the event will only include cross-country as the use of firearms are very restricted in Japan.

Brian McKeever, recent gold medalist at the World’s will lead the Canadian team at the event along with guide Graham Nishikawa. Brian is only expecting to do the 10 and 20k events as he prepares for the upcoming Swedish Vasaloppet.

The Canadian team will be hunting for other medals as well with Chris Klebl, Mark Arendz and Brittany Hudak all having previous experience on the World Cup podium.

1. Sat Feb 14th CC Middle (CL)
2. Sun Feb 15 CC SP (CL)
3. Tues Feb 17th CC Long (CL)
4. Wed Feb 18th CC SP (FR)
5. Thurs Feb 19th CC Middle (FR)

Race website
Results

3) Feb 7-Mar. 8: Latvian National Championships and Scandinavian Cup Tour
A Development Tour of athletes will be racing over the next few weeks in Latvia and Estonia. They will be competing in the Latvian National Championships and Scandinavian Cup races in Latvia and Estonia. The trip departed February 7 from Canada and February 9th from Almaty, Kazakhstan. The trip ends for some athletes in Helsinki on Feb.27. For qualifying athletes, the Tour will continue onto the Lahti, Finland World Cup March 7-8.

This trip is designed to give the next generation of Canadian athletes much needed international experience. The athletes competing are:
Cendrine Browne
Patrick Stewart-Jones
Alysson Marshall
Michael Somppi
Andrea Dupont
Kevin Sandau
Dahria Beatty
Andy Shields
Alexis Dumas

Knute Johnsgaard and Katherine Stewart-Jones declined to participate in order to recover from the Worlds in Kazakhstan and to participate in the upcoming Canada Winter Games. Heidi Widmer also declined.

Selection announcement
The athletes will be racing in 2 races of the Latvian National Championships this weekend in Vietalva. These will be classic sprint and an interval start free-technique competitions. The weather in Vietalva is just below zero deg. C. with excellent skiing conditions.

4) Feb 14, Canadian Long Distance Championships, Gatineau Loppet, Gatineau, Quebec
Saturday’s 51k classic event at the Gatineau Loppet is also the Canadian Long Distance Championship competition. The point to point event will travel over some excellent skiing conditions in the challenging terrain of Gatineau Park. It will be part of a full 3 day weekend of racing for all ages and experience.