Strathcona Nordic skiers shone at BC Cup in Revelstoke, the second of the BC Cup racing series.
The host club, The Revelstoke Nordics, spent time in the offseason building new trails to offer more challenging terrain for the racers and they were very successful. The first day of racing was a classic sprint format. The distances might have been short, but the climbs were steep and the descents were fast with some hairpin turns. Some of the heats resembled a ski cross event, with racers vying for positioning on the corners making it an exciting event for spectators.
Younger team members thrived on the speed and corners with Ben Galik boot sliding to a silver medal, Gillian Galik sprinting to gold for the Bantam 1 girls, Gavin Chatterton of Campbell River, snagged the silver in the Bantam boys category and Maddie Galik rounded out the podium in her category coming fifth. Noah Doeschner-Fretts, of Comox, stayed on his feet despite many crashes in his heat to come eighth for the Midget boys. The older athletes had a particularly gruelling climb and descent. Emma Wong and Amelia Wells rose to the challenge with Emma claiming the bronze medal for junior girls and Amelia coming 6th. Hugo Henckel of Courtenay and Gabe Gledhill of Cumberland, both brought home bronze medals in the Juvenile boys and Junior men’s categories respectively. Other top ten finishes include Emmanuel Bussani in 4th, Aiden Noble in 8th and Theo Lemay and Fynn Collins-Mann coming 10th.
Day two of racing was a mass start skate technique race and the hilly terrain was clearly an advantage for the Strathcona Nordics, with 12 more top ten finishes. The younger racers once again showed their grit with a bronze medal for Ben Galik of Royston, his older sisters both had podium finishes with Gillian Galik claiming silver despite starting at the very back of the mass start and Maddie Galik with a strong finish to claim 4th. Gavin Chatterton repeated his performance easily claiming the silver medal. His older sister, Anna Chatterton, skied to a sixth-place finish on the difficult7.5km course.
For the midget boys, Fynn Collins-Mann of Courtenay powered to an 8th place finish. Hugo Henckel finished strong in 7th with Finn Manktelow in 10th for each of their juvenile boys’ categories. The junior athletes skied a 7.5km race with Emma Wong coming 4th for the girls. Gabe Gledhill was back on the podium with a silver medal in his category and Emmanuel Bussani also claimed a silver medal. Aiden Noble rounded out our top 10 finishes coming in 9th place.
“I am very proud of our racers, they all rose to the occasion, skiing with grit and determination on very challenging and technical courses,” said head coach Andrea Stapff. The team continues to train on Mount Washington looking forward to Western Canadian Championships, which will be hosted in Kelowna next month.
For more information on the Strathcona Nordics check out their new and improved website www.strathconanordics.com or find them on Facebook.
