Monday 26 November 2018

Alberta Cup Update and team training this week

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well.

Here is an update from the Alberta Cup weekend for the skiers who traveled from Whitehorse with the Yukon Ski Team as well as other Yukon skiers who competed in the weekend races with their respective teams.

Overall, it was a great start of the season for the Yukon skiers with a great opportunity to test their fitness and technique in a large field of skiers from Western Canada and beyond. In excess of 500 skiers participated in the weekend races which opened the racing season in Canada.

Our Whitehorse based junior skiers were all racing up a category as it was the start of the selection process for the Canada Winter Games. Alberta skiers did the same as the event was also used by Team Alberta as a Canada Winter Games selection process.

The races took part on a short machine made snow loop raced multiple times, similar to what our Whitehorse skiers have done in the past few weeks at home. This format is exciting for the athletes as it provide ample opportunities to ski with faster skiers during the races. It is also great for the coaches and the spectators to see the skiers multiple times during the races.

Here is the result summary from the weekend:

Alberta Cup Races
Canmore, Ab
Nov 24-25, 2018

Interval Start skate
Nov 24, 2018

5 km distance, Open Women

Dahria Beatty 1st

5 km distance, Junior Women

Amanda Thomson 12th
Sonjaa Schmidt 15th
Hannah Jirousek 20th
Dahlia Lapointe 23rd

9 km distance, Open Men

Graham Nishikawa 1st
Caelan Mclean 19th

9 km distance, Junior Men

Derek Deuling 5th
Sasha Masson 13th
Victor-Emile Thibeault 23rd
Romeo Champagne 31st
Jamie Phillips-Freedman 32st
Nichollis Schmidt 34th

Interval Start classic
Nov 25, 2018

8.5 km distance, Open Women

Dahria Beatty 1st

8.5 km distance, Junior Women

Amanda Thomson 5th
Sonjaa Schmidt 15th
Hannah Jirousek 16th
Dahlia Lapointe 20th

11 km distance, Open Men

Graham Nishikawa 11th
Caelan Mclean 13th

11 km distance, Junior Men

Derek Deuling 4th
Sasha Masson 14th
Victor-Emile Thibeault 21st
Romeo Champagne 23rd
Jamie Phillips-Freedman 24th
Nichollis Schmidt 26th

Also, please find the time trial results from Saturday for the blue Squad skiers:

Conditions: minus 3, overcast, windy, abrasive snow

Boys 4x 1.5 km

Noah                   20:00
Isidore                21:14
Curtis                 19:38
Ben                     18:10
Jude                    21:46

Girls: 3x 1.5 km

Annie                  19:18
Isla                      17:16
Maude                 17:32
Bella                    16:10

Thanks to Lois, Jean-Francois and Scott for coordinating.

Finally, please find the training schedule for the week:

Monday Nov 26 at 4: ski in skating and do some speed work.

Skiers who were in Canmore can do a short an easy ski as well as remove the klister from their classic skis used in Canmore.

Tuesday Nov 27 at 4: ski in skating and do some agility, balance work and more speed as a group.

Wednesday: I will enter everyone in both Don Sumanik races for the weekend.

Thursday Nov 29 at 4: we will ski in classic and do some race prep on the race course for the weekend (tbd). You can start glide waxing your race skis at the end of practice.

Saturday-Sunday: Don Sumanik races, skate on Saturday and classic on Sunday.

Distances and courses will be confirmed later in the week based on snow conditions.