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Eastern Championship Sprints 2012
By:  Logan Potter   (2012/02/06)

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Eastern Canadian Championships got underway on Friday with skate sprints.

In the mens category 3 skiers from XC Ottawa qualified to move on into the heats. Andre Marchand qualified in 13th Open man, a very good result with such a deep field. Lee Hawkings, Peter Beisel and Matthias Purdon also qualified in 24th, 29th  and 30th. Kyle Power also had a very strong qualifier and just missed qualifying by 2 spots and less than a second.

The women from XC Ottawa also had a very good day in qualifiers with 5 girls making it into the heats. Megan McTavish had the strongest qualifier of the XC Ottawa women in 10th place senior women. Ingrid Hagberg, Vesta Mather, Sheila Kealey, and Katie McMahon also qualified for heats in 17th,18th,21st, and 30th. Also both Kendra Murray and Holly Jones from Carleton qualified in Junior Women, with 6th and 27th.

The afternoon looked to be very exciting with lots of skiers we knew battling it out on the exciting courses at Nakkertok. In the men’s race Lee Hawkings would perform best in the heats for the XC Ottawa crew finishing 15th overall. Lee hung out in the back of his pack for the most of the heat, conserving energy and skiing relaxed. On the last hill he did some powerful one-skating to move up a couple spots and ultimately finish 3rd in his heat. Andre looked strong in his heat but unfortunately took a spill midway through the course, which stopped him from moving on in the heats, finishing 26th overall. Matthias and Peter also had strong heats, but not quite enough to move past the quarters. They finished 25th and 29th respectively.

On the women’s side Megan McTavish would have a very strong quarter. She started strong, mixed in with the pack the whole way until the last hill where she made a strong attack, putting her in a good position. It was close at the line, but Megan had done enough to make it to the semifinals nevertheless. In the end, Megan finished with a very strong showing: 11th place overall. Ingrid, Vesta, Sheila, and Katie all also had strong quarters, some of them moving up a couple places in the overall. Ingrid finished 15th, Vesta 18th, Sheila 20th, and Katie 30th. Kendra Murray also made it into the Junior women final and placed 6th, a very impressive result. Holly Jones also had a strong quarter moving up to 24th overall on the day.

In the end it was a very good day for XC Ottawa in the sprints with everyone putting in a very hard effort.

In terms of race waxing, we used the following:

Qualifiers: Vauhti LF Graphite then Vauhti HF blue topped with Vauhti HFC21 block
Heats: Vauhti LF Graphite then Vauhti HF blue topped with Vauhti Zerofox block

Vesta looking strong coming around the corner in her quater.

Peter one-skating up the final hill and trying to make a move before the final stretch to the finish.

Lee chatting with John Suuronen after his strong quarter final.

Megan stoked on the bagel lunch. You can also see the confidence she has going into the quarters.

Megan, Sheila, and Katie coming around the first corner of their quarter.

Megan and Sheila right in there halfway through their quarter final.

Megan hanging on in her semifinal.

Megan with a strong double pole start in the B final.

Matthias rounding the corner with David Greer in his quarter final.

Lee powering it out right to the finish.

Ingrid pushing up the hill in her quarter.

Andre skiing it out after his fall, notice the snow on his knees.

For more pictures from the 2012 Eastern Canadian Championships check out the following links:

http://ajlskiphotos200910.shutterfly.com

http://www.musicianonskis.ca/Races_Faces_Places.html

Also check back in for more articles on the different races this weekend. 


 
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