December 16, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nishes Rule
Graham Nishikawa had the race of his life on Sunday in the final race of the three race Canmore World Cup series. He picked up 15th place in the field, only 22 seconds behind Maurice Manificat of France who outsprinted the field to take the overall win. Ivan Babikov was the top Canadian in 12th place.
Competing in a 30 km skiathlon, Nishikawa hung in with the lead pack as attack after attack was put into the field by the leaders on the Canmore hills.
The men’s skiathlon combined 15 km of classic technique racing; the men then switched skis and poles and did another 15 km of skate racing.
But Nishikawa persevered and had his best ever placing in a World Cup.
On the women’s side, Emily Nishikawa was the top Canadian of the day in a breakthrough performance. She was 34th overall on the day. The women raced 15 km.
The women’s race was dominated by Justyna Kowalczyk from Poland who broke away less than 5 km into the race and never looked back, at one point stretching her lead to almost a minute over the field.
In other women’s results, Dahria Beatty finished in 54thplace in her debut skiathlon.
In other men’s results, David Greer finished in 51st place, Knute Johnsgaard was 56th and John Parry was 61st. Johnsgaard and Parry were last minute additions to the field after several Canadian team qualifiers decided to sit the race out.
