Come Watch Canada’s Best Cross Country Skiers Compete at Nakkertok this Weekend
By:  Team XCOttawa   (2008/01/31)

The Eastern Canadian Championships is the next stop on the Haywood NorAm race series. The event is happening this weekend (Feb 2-3) at Nakkertok Nordic Ski Club, and will showcase some of Canada’s best cross country skiers.  

Many athletes from Canada’s national team will be competing. Although the Globe and Mail told us that Olympic medalist Chandra Crawford would be showing up, unfortunately we have news that she won't be coming East! But many of the country's best skiers will be here to show us their stuff.  Nakkertok has a newly designed sprint course, and I’m sure many will love to see they power over the steep climbs and navigate down “Dirk’s Dive” and “Coaches’ Revenge.” Nakkertok racer Perianne Jones is the current leader in Canada's Teck Cominco sprint series, and she will be here to maintain that title. Other national team skiers racing include Sean
Crooks, Stefan Kuhn, and Dasha Giaizova.

Almost 600 athletes will be competing Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is the Teck Cominco Sprint event: in the morning, athletes will time trial the course on their own, and the afternoon will see the best qualifiers race head to head in a series of heats.

Sunday is a distance classic race, where athletes in the same category will line up for a mass start. Races start at 9:00 AM both days. Most of the XC Ottawa team is racing, and looking forward to this high level of competition so close to home.

Come Out and Cheer!

Come watch some great skiers in action, and cheer on current and future olympians! The venue is ideal for spectators, since Nakkertok’s fun trail system winds close to and around the stadium many times.

How to get there:

Nakkertok Nordic is located in Cantley at the northern end of Gatineau Avenue. Take Hwy 50 north, exit at La Verendrye, and turn north, make a right turn at the lights and follow "Avenue Gatineau" north 5 km to the end. Park your car close to Tache, and take the shuttle, walk, or ski to the stadium area (about 500 meters). Saturday’s sprint races take place on a 1200m loop, so if you bring your skis you can explore some of Nakkertok’s great trails. On Sunday, most of the trail system will be busy with racers. Here are some details of the trails open to non-racers this weekend.

Results will be posted at Zone4.ca.

Perianne Jones (right) testing out the sprint course at the Boxing Day Burnoff.