VERNON, B.C. -- A group of dedicated Big Thunder Nordic Ski Team athletes opened their competitive season this weekend at the Haywood NorAm and Sprints/USSA Super Tour held at the beautiful Sovereign Lake Nordic Center, B.C.
Thunder Bay was well represented by a number of local athletes from Big Thunder and Lappe Nordic clubs, local Ontario Ski Team members, National Team Development Center and Lakehead University varsity team. The events included Open Classic Sprints and Mass Start Classic races on Saturday and Interval Start Free Technique events on Sunday.
By far the most impressive result of the weekend went to Big Thunder/ONST Junior Boy Kai Meekis who captured gold in Sunday’s 10 kilometre Interval Start Free technique event.
Senior and Junior Men/Women competed in Open Classic 1.3 kilometre sprints on Saturday with Graham Richie (NTDC) earning 4th in the prestigious A Final and Malcolm Thompson (ONST) placing 9th in the B Final. In the women’s events, the Senior and Junior Women gave outstanding efforts in a competitive field. For the Big Thunder team, Mia Serratore (NTDC) earned the best result at 24th in the quarter finals.
Junior Boys and Girls competed in Mass Start Classic events on Saturday. Ontario Ski Team members Kai Meekis and Heidi Stewart placed 4th and 9th respectively, while Big Thunder teammate Nicholas Randall captured 14th.
The excitement continued on Sunday with Interval Start Free Technique events for all categories. Kai Meekis (ONST) captured the gold in the 10 kilometre Junior Boys event, while teammate Nicholas Randall placed 19th. Junior Girl Heidi Stewart (ONST) made the top ten at 9th. Big Thunders’ Senior Men, Angus Foster (NTDC) and Fergus Foster competed in a highly competitive international field and placed 70th and 74th respectively. Three Junior Men made the top 30 with Malcolm Thompson (ONST) earning 18th, Graham Ritchie (NTDC) 19th, and Noah Thompson (Lakehead University) placing 26th. Noah Taylor from Lakehead University and Big Thunder’s Aidan Carr also skied strongly to 34th and 41st respectively.
Big Thunder Senior Women also gave strong performances in the 10 kilometre skate event with Sadie White (NTDC), Mia Serratore (NTDC) and Camille Hamm (Lakehead University) capturing the best results with 25th, 32nd and 46th respectively.
Looking ahead, older athletes will continue to compete at Haywood NorAm events in Rossland, B.C., December 15th – 17th. A team of Big Thunder athletes and Head Coach Leif Lennie will travel east to Mont Ste. Anne, Quebec for the Ontario Cup #1/World Junior Under 23 Trials January 2-10th, 2018. In addition, organizers are hard at work getting ready for the Ontario University Association Championships February 23-25th and the Haywood Ski Nationals March 10-17th, 2018, both events to be held at Lappe Nordic Ski Center in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Full results can be found at http://zone4.ca/results/
