LAPPE, Ont. – Individual gold had eluded Katherine Stewart-Jones all week.
As Saturday arrived, the National Team Development Centre-Thunder Bay star had one chance left, the marquee senior women’s 30-kilometre classic race at Lappe Nordic Ski Centre.
She made the most of the opportunity.
Stewart-Jones, 22, found a burst of energy in the last 500 metres of Saturday’s race, her final competition at the 2018 Ski Nationals, to outlast Alberta’s Annika Hicks and NTDC-TB teammate Allannah MacLean and grab top spot in a time of 1:33:50.7, three seconds faster the Hicks, who settled for silver.
It was the second gold medal for Stewart-Jones, who teamed with Zoe Williams to capture the open team sprint competition last Saturday, the opening race of the eight-day competition. She also grabbed bronze in the five-kilometre classic interval start race.
“I really, really wanted to win today,” Stewart-Jones said. “I was so close all week and just wanted to win that gold medal. To get it in the 30 K is obviously amazing.”
Winning took strategy, as a pack of the country’s top skiers, and American Caitlin Gregg, forged their way to the front and stuck together most of the way.
It was all a matter of timing, the winning skier said.
“We were definitely a big group of about six most of the race, and then after the third lap I said I needed to get into a good position, near the front. I knew everyone was tired,” said Stewart-Jones. “My legs were tired and my right arm kept cramping up, but I had to ignore it.
“It was definitely on the second-last hill. I didn’t want to go too hard, because I know if you go hard on the second-to-last hill, then the last hill you can die and get passed. I tried to stay relaxed and then on the last hill I gave everything I had and I didn’t look back.”
For MacLean, the NTDC veteran, it was a chance at one final medal, having announced she’s walking away from the sport, at least at the elite level.
Sunday represented her final race.
The Walden, Ont. native led much of the event, but was outgunned down the stretch and settled for third, her third bronze medal of the 2018 Ski Nationals.
She’s just glad she stuck with it.
“I haven’t been racing as well the past two years. I herniated a disc a year-and-a-half ago and it’s been a long ride to try to get back to full health and to be able to do it at the very end of the season, the last set of races of my racing career … is a pretty incredible way to realize my potential and know that I wasn’t wrong, that I wasn’t slow and to be able to come back and end up on the podium for three days at nationals.”
It was more of the same for Kenora’s Lisle Compton in the junior women’s race, a 20-kilometre trek through the Northwestern Ontario wildnerness.
Compton pulled away late to edge Whitehorse, Yukon’s Natalie Hynes by five seconds, completing the three-lap race in 1:05:15.1 to earn her second individual gold of the week.
“It’s awesome. My plan was to kind of ski with the pack for the first couple of laps and try to push the pace on the last lap. That’s exactly what I was able to do. Natalie Hynes was able to come with me and we were able to put a big gap on the rest of the competitors.
Hannah Mehain of B.C. took third.
In the junior boys 15-K, Thunder Bay’s Kai Meekis grabbed his fourth medal of the week, capturing bronze to go with his two golds and a silver. Olivier Leveille of Quebec won in 41:06.7.
