Months after breaking leg, skier Jenn Jackson claims junior women's gold

A broken leg usually ends most ski-racing seasons.

Don’t tell National Development Centre-Thunder Bay’s Jenn Jackson, who fractured her leg late last year, but made a triumphant return to the slopes this week, capturing gold on Saturday in the junior women’s 20-kilometre mass-start skate race on the final day of competition at the 2015 Haywood Ski Nationals at Lappe Nordic Ski Centre.

The 20-year-old Midhurst, Ont. native was the lone skier to finish the course in under an hour, clocking in at 59:34.9, 33.3 seconds ahead of Alberta’s Maya MacIsaac-Jones, whose runner-up finish secured her the overall junior woman’s title.

“During my recovery I really made the most of that time,” Jackson said, seconds after the gold medal was placed around her neck Saturday afternoon.

“It could have ended my season, but I had a lot of great input from my coaches and the support was really awesome. To come back and to be able to race at and above where I was before, for me feels pretty amazing and I think I’ve made a pretty great impression on the ski season this year.”

Shooting for the No. 1 racer of the week title was plenty of motivation for Jackson, a second-year member of the NDC-Thunder Bay team.

“I knew coming into today I had to have a great race, in order to hang on and fight for that top spot. But (Maya) finished second, so I also ended up second in the aggregate. But it was just a great race for me.”

Jackson said the slow pace at the start suited her style.

“I was able to ski strong in the latter half and pull away on some of the more gradual climbing sections,” Jackson said.

In the woman’s senior 30-kilometre race, it was Quebec’s Cendrine Browne who crossed the finish line first in 1:23:02.3, with little room for error.

The 21-year-old St.-Jerome, Que. native edged out fellow national ski team teammate Emily Nishikawa by a mere 0.3 seconds to grab the title on a chilly day at Lappe Nordic.

“It feels great to have a national championship title. It was a great day and a great race. I’m really happy.”

The photo finish made it exciting, she added.

“We were four girls up until the last 500 metres. I really knew I was going to win when I arrived here at the finish line. It was so close and it was really tight, but it was a fun race,” Browne said.

Whitehorse’s Dahria Beatty was third.

Lakeehead’s Alannah MacLean was the top local skier, completing the race course in 1:28:23.7. Lakeheaad’s Bryana van Leeuwen was 21st.

In the junior girls race, British Columbia’s Hannah Mehain took the 7.5-kilometre mass-start race in 20:42.5. Lappe Nordic’s Laura Inkila was 21st.