Michael Somppi has his eyes on the World Cup circuit, but the Thunder Bay skier had some unfinished business in his own backyard to take care of first.
Somppi, who heads west next week for a series of six races in Alberta and British Columbia that could land him a spot at a World Cup event in Poland later this season, on Friday claimed the three-kilometre senior men’s crown at Lappe, the first Ontario Cup race of 2012.
The 23-year-old edged fellow National Development Centre Thunder Bay teammate Andy Shields by 7.2 seconds, finishing the course in 8:24.0.
Fellow NDC members Christopher Hamilton and Jordan Cascagnette finished third and fourth, respectively. They will join Shields and several other teammates next weekend at nationals in Whistler, B.C., where spots on the junior and under-23 squads will be up for grabs.
For Somppi, it was a chance to get back into game shape, in conditions that suit his style of skiing.
“I had a lot of fun, the tracks were amazing,” Somppi said. “We haven’t had hard tracks like that for awhile, so I was really pumped to see that. That’s the kind of conditions I like to ski classic in.
“The course was really rocket fast out there and I just went and had fun.”
Somppi, a member of Canada’s national Nordic ski team, said he would have preferred a longer race in preparation for his World Cup run, but it was still a great effort in his mind, one that will have him heading out on a high.
“I have to be on my ‘A’ game out there and hopefully I can do that,” Somppi said, who will also compete for starts on the highly competitive European circuit.
His confidence is at an all-time high.
“Training’s been going really well and I feel like it’s starting to come together, with today’s good performance. But there’s a lot of stiff competition in the Canadian men’s field right now, so it won’t be easy and I need to be racing well.”
Retiring NDC coach Eric Bailey said the senior men’s results were just what he was hoping for.
“Yeah, we leave for trials in just a few days, so we were using this as a tune-up race. And we had the four top men in the seniors … It was really good, a sweep for the NDC, which you’d expect, but it’s a really good opportunity for us to get ready for trials.”
Bailey’s female contingent took the day off, choosing to race in Saturday’s sprints before their Sunday departure. That opened the door for Big Thunder’s Daphne Haggerty to capture the crown in 10:52.4, about four seconds faster than Team Hardwood's Mary Thompson. Haggerty, in her third year skiing for the Lakehead women’s cross country team, called it a fun distance to race.
“The key today for most racers was just going out and going really, really hard, but keep it controlled and use good technique so there’s no wasted energy and just ski the course as fast as you can and as efficiently as you can,” Haggerty said.
“That’s the sport. It’s hard to keep up that effort and keep it really efficient because it’s not a sprint. That can be really challenging, but that’s where stamina and technique and practice come into play.”
In junior men’s, Team Hardwood’s Nicholas Monette took top spot in a time of 8:53.1, more than 17 seconds faster than runner up John Carlyle of the Soo Finnish ski team. Big Thunder’s Julian Freitag took the junior boy’s title in 9:11.6, 2.5 seconds better than Nakkertok’s Benjamin Wilkinson-Zan. North Bay’s Aaron Birosh won the juvenile boy’s crown 9:48.1, eight seconds faster than Samuel Greer of the Highland Trailblazer squad. In the midget boys race, Austin Valjas of Team Hardwood topped all, finishing in 11:16.5.
Moira Haggerty took the junior women's race in 10:52.54, while Porcupine's Jessica Demers grabbed the junior girls win in a rapid 10:46.6. Mia Serratore was the top racer in the juvenile girls category, crossing the line in 11:10.7m while Big Thunder's Marina White won the midget girls race in 13:23.5.
Racing continues at Lappe on Saturday and Sunday.
