The organizers had designed a relatively long course – 1.3 kilometres, with one tough long uphill at the start and two smaller uphills interspersed with longer flat sections. Some warm temperatures and rain assaulted the course yesterday (Thursday), but it held up extremely well.
Qualifying didn’t go so well for the XC Ottawa men – Tom, who fancies himself a bit of a sprinter, looked ‘a bit flat’ in coach John’s words, and finished 32nd in senior men – only the top 30 qualify for the knockout rounds, so Tom was just barely out of luck. Gavin, Brian and Craig also missed qualifying, by various degrees. Karl took a day off to focus on the upcoming 50k on Sunday.
The XC Ottawa women fared better. Both
Sheila and Megan qualified for the afternoon knock-out rounds, Megan in 20th
and Sheila in 23rd in Open Women. They both came back in the afternoon, but unfortunately didn’t proceed
on past the quarter-final rounds. They
were facing extremely tough competition – 2006 Olympic gold medallist Chandra
Crawford flew in special from
It was a long day, but a good day, at the Mont Ste. Anne sprint course. A special shout-out to our dedicated wax and coaching team, John Suuronen and Liam Watson, for their very hard work on our behalf.
Next up: the grand finale distance races, 50k for the men, 30k for the women.
Chris Jeffries in qualifying round