Submitted
Cross Country BC
The Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club had 42 top five finishes at the first Teck BC Cup race on Jan. 4-5 at the Larch Hills.
The event included an interval start sprint qualifier followed by Kings Court or elimination format sprints on Saturday, and an interval start free technique event on Sunday.
Clubs attended from all over B.C. as well as Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Oregon and Norway. Distances varied from 150m sprints and 1km distance events for the youngest athletes and up to 800 m sprints and 10.5km events for older competitors.
Revelstoke top three finishers in the interval start events included:
- Maya Royle- 2nd in the U12 Girls
- Cedar Jacob- 1st in U12 boys
- Ruby Serrouya-1st in U14 Girls
- Meya Musseay-3rd in U14 Girls
- Alexandra Luxmoore-1st in U16 Girls (42 seconds ahead of 2nd place)
- Jaclyn Elliott-1st in U18 Girls
- Emily Mcleod-2nd in U18 Girls
- Gina Cinelli-2nd in Open Women
- Annmarie Gill-1st in Masters Women
- Mandy Kellner-3rd in Masters Women
In the sprint events top three finishers included:
- Cedar Jacob-2nd in U12 boys
- Maya Royle-2nd in U12 Girls
- Ruby Serrouya-1st in U14 Girls
- Elliot Wilson-1st in U16 Boys
- Alexandra Luxmoore-1st in U16 Girls
- Emily MacLeod-1st in U18 Girls
- Jaclyn Elliot-3rd in U18 Girls
- Gina Cinelli-2nd in Open Women
While the sprint racing on Saturday was exciting and the athletes challenged by multiple loops of a tough course on Sunday the big story of the weekend was the weather.
The week leading up to the Teck BC Cup No. 1 brought a lot of snow, rising and falling temperatures and wind.
Over 10,000 homes in the Shuswap were without power for hours or days, including our own newly expanded chalet at Larch Hills.
The heavy snow combined with winds brought down hundreds of trees on the trails at Larch Hills, and volunteers scrambled to clear the trails required to run the events for the BC Cup in time.
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On Friday, Jan. 3, BC Hydro closed Edgar Road to restore a power line cutting off access to Larch Hills the day before the races were set to start, further complicating the weekend if power (and water) couldn’t be restored to the chalet in time for the event.
Cross country skiers, however, are nothing if not determined – and this weekend proved to be no exception.
The road was cleared on Friday afternoon and power restored and everything fell into place – masking the huge amount of effort Larch Hills’ volunteers did to ready the trails and put on an event that saw approximately 500 skiers take to the trails.
Saturday started off with grey skies and a light flurry of snow that had waxers pausing to see what would happen, but the snow quickly stopped, and temperatures hovered just below zero.
At 9 a.m. the first skiers were off, starting with the U8 and U10 boys and girls doing 150m and 200m courses using classic technique.
Two Para Nordic athletes were next, also completing the 200 m sprint course.
Following that, the various age categories worked their way up in distance, finishing up with the 800 m course for the master’s men and women.
Following the qualifiers, athletes receive new bib numbers that rank them according to their speed in the qualifier.
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Groups of 2-7 athletes are then put into a group that all sprint together for the finish line on the same course as the qualifier. All racers in an age group run through one group sprint, and then race officials reset the order and then all race again two more times, for ages up to U14 (13 years old).
This format, called ‘King’s Court’, allows all younger racers to race multiple times giving them more experience racing and ensuring younger skiers and their families aren’t quickly eliminated after a potentially long journey to the Teck BC Cup race.
U16 skiers and older proceed from qualifiers into an elimination format, which helps keep the skiing to daylight hours. These older skiers are guaranteed one group sprint before being potentially eliminated from further semi-finals and finals.
Saturday’s races were very exciting, and many races end in a photo-finish given the short distances and tough competition.
Sunday’s race is much simpler and consists of an interval start free technique race.
For most competitors this means switching to longer poles, more supportive and stiffer boots and shorter skis with no grip zone.
Athletes ski on groomed trails ranging from a single lap of a 1 km course for the youngest skiers to 3 laps of a tough 3.5 km course for the oldest.
This year’s course was like the courses used last year for the BC Championships and except for the youngest skiers includes finishing or lapping up the ‘Beast’ – a tough hill leading up to the finish line.
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