Estonia!!!

The races that have been at the back of my mind since May are in the history books. Three days of racing each year determine who travels to Europe and competes against the best skiers in the world and who stays in Canada trying to find races to keep them occupied until Nationals. Thankfully everything worked in my favor this year and I qualified for the World U23 Championships in Otepaa, Estonia!! On top of that I also get a World Cup sprint start the week before the Champs at the same venue! This will be my first World Cup in Europe (I have had 4 starts in World Cups in Canada) so I am very excited!

Three NorAm races in Thunder Bay were used for the U23 team selection. Four girls can start each event at the U23 Championships and up to 5 girls can be chosen, although the selection committee usually decides to send only 2 or 3 girls. The winner of each event gets selected and the remainder of the team is chosen based on sprint and distance ranking lists from the races.

Thursday was the first test with a 15km pursuit event. I felt good in the 7.5km classic portion and went into the exchange in 6th spot. I faded a bit during the two skate laps, due mainly to two ridiculously long and steep uphills in the last kilometer of each lap. Despite my best attempts those hills killed me every time! I dropped one position in the skate portion and finished in 7th overall, 3rd U23. It was a frigid race with a temperature of around -19 plus wind chill. My toes went numb partway through the first classic lap. I rushed to the daylodge as soon as I crossed the finish line and was almost in tears, clutching my toes as they slowly thawed out.

Racing in the pursuit - a frosty morning! Photo: Martin Kaiser

Next up was the classic sprint on Saturday. I went into the race determined to get the U23 win so I could secure my spot on the Championships team. The qualifier went well and I was 4th overall, top U23. The race started early, on another icy morning, and I started my warmup in the dark. It was amazing how cold I got after a 3min race in that temperature! Brrrr! Luckily it warmed up by the time the heats started. I moved through my quarter and semi finals safely and made the A-final. I felt strong and pushed hard on the long climb and finished in 3rd spot and was the top U23! The U23 win earned me a spot on the team and getting my first NorAm medal as a senior was icing on the cake!

The finish of my semi-final (I'm #4) Photo: Martin Kaiser

The last race was a 10km skate. I felt good at the start of the race but my efforts the day before caught up with me and I had trouble keeping the pace on the two massive hills each lap. I finished in 7th overall, 2nd U23.

After multiple delayed flights I finally arrived back in Canmore just after 1 AM Monday morning. We have a few days of recovery and training here before leaving on Sunday. The plan is to train in Finland for a few days then go to Otepaa. I will race the World Cup classic sprint there then compete in the three races at the U23 World Champs. The full team selections are here - it was a impressive weekend for the Academy with 9 athletes chosen for World Juniors and World U23s out of the 19-person team! I think the team is very strong this year so it should be an awesome trip!