For the second straight year, the Black Jack Ski Club qualified three skiers to the FIS World Junior-U20 Nordic Ski Championships.
Black Jack skiers Remi and Jasmine Drolet, and Molly Miller skied their hearts out at the Haywood NorAm World Junior-U23 Nordic Ski Trials in Mont Sainte Ann, Quebec last week and will be making the trip to Germany for the Worlds.
Rossland skier Remi Drolet was unbeatable winning three gold medals at the three-day event. Remi captured his first gold in the sprint on Thursday with a time of 2:34.75, beating out National Jr. Ski Team rival Xavier McKeever.
Drolet then claimed top spot in the 10-km Interval start with a time of 26:46.2 on Saturday and won the 15-km Mass start on Sunday by almost two minutes over Tom Stephen and McKeever with a time of 1:16:01.9.
Related read: Black Jack’s Remi Drolet primed for World Jr. Ski championship
Remi’s younger sister Jasmine claimed two second-place finishes in the 5-km interval start and in the 15-km mass start for U20 women to qualify for Worlds.
Related read: Black Jack skier qualifies for Youth Olympic Games
Black Jack’s Molly Miller of Kimberley meanwhile earned first in the 5-km Interval with an impressive ski, then raced to third in the U20 women’s sprint.
“A good World Junior Trials for our club,” said Black Jack coach David Wood. “We will send three skiers to the Wold Junior Team, the most of any Canadian club, and a great team effort.”
Remi is attending Harvard, but is still under the tutelage of Wood and skis with the Black Jack club at the national level.
A member of the Canadian National Ski Team, this will be Remi’s third trip to the FIS Junior/U23 World Ski Championships. Last year he had the highest finish ever for a BC skier, placing seventh at the 2019 Worlds in Lahti, Finland.
Jasmine competed at the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switz. last month, gaining valuable experience and two top-20 results. She is also a Canada Winter Games champion who also placed second in the 2019 Rising Stars race at the World Cup in Quebec City.
Julien Locke also competed and earned a seventh place finish in the sprint and came in 16th in the 15-km Interval and 30-km Mass Start events.
The age group World Nordic Championships are contested every year and include all three Nordic disciplines. Athletes may not be more than 20 years old during the competition season for the Junior category or 23 years old for the U23 World Ski Championships. Juniors compete in three individual events (Skiathlon, sprint, interval start) plus a 4 x mixed relay while U23 athletes compete in similar formatted individual events that include longer distances.
Canada has won a number of medals at the Junior and U23 Championships, the most notable being a gold by Alex Harvey in the U23 Skiathlon at the 2011 Championships.
This year’s championship goes in Oberwiesenthal, Germany, Feb. 28 to Mar. 8.
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