The Eastern Canadian Championships wrapped up today with interval start, skate competitions. The race was delayed due to the cold temperatures, a marked contrast to the weather from the first part of the competitions.

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The men competed over 15km at the Nakkertok Ski Centre and Barrie’s Scott Hill was the winner in the distance event, finishing a dominant 32 seconds ahead of Montreal’s Francis Izquierdo-Bernier. Hill held a small 4 second lead on the first lap but stretched in by another 28 seconds on lap 2, to claim his second gold medal of the Eastern Championships. Third was Étienne Hébert of Varennes, Saturday’s sprint winner. The top Junior was Pembroke’s Guillaume Pelchat in 5^th position.

Scott Hill: “I felt good. I have been doing lots of racing but wasn’t too tired. It was fun to do two long 7.5 k laps. We usually are on shorter laps, so it was a nice change.”

Nakkertok’s Zoë Williams built up a 22 second lead on the first lap of 15k, to beat Quebec City’s Emmanuelle Simard by 24 seconds and claim gold for the second day in a row. Sienna Brennan-Raab from Chelsea was the top junior in 3^rd place overall.

Zoë Williams: “I am very happy with how the race went today. It was gorgeous out there but a little cold, which made for some very fast racing. It was a little sketchy on the downhills, but I like downhills, so that was fun for me.”

In the Para-Nordic competitions Logan Lariviere of Sudbury won the men’s standing competition while nursing student, Emma Archibald of Scotia XC and uOttawa, won her second gold medal in the women’s competition. Sébastien Fortier of Quebec City, also claimed a 2^nd  gold medal in the sitski competition.

The skiers will now shift their focus to the last big event of the season, the Canadian Championships in Whistler B.C., March 20-27.

Anton Scheier, 613-601-8257 media@engne.ca or
Marie-Pier Pelletier-Millette, +1 (819) 593-1159 mariepierpm@gmail.com