Chelsea’s Tory Audet and Orford’s Leo Grandbois capture FIS Eastern/Canada Cup titles
580 racers compete in the first big Eastern race of the season, at the Nakkertok Ski Centre
The FIS Eastern/Candy Cane Cup featured classic, cross- country ski, sprint races today at the Nakkertok Ski Centre. The races were run on the Nakkertrak artificial snow loop. Thursday’s cooler weather allowed some last-minute touch ups, to ensure the success of the event, presented by Tourism Outaouais and Ville de Gatineau. 580 racers were participating from across Eastern Canada, first racing a qualifier race in the morning followed by knockout heats, for the top 30, in the afternoon.
Chelsea’s 17-year-old racer, Tory Audet was the star of the women’s field winning the morning’s 1.3k qualifier by over 6 seconds. She breezed through the heats and won in the final by 8 seconds over Carleton University’s Maggie McClure. Another junior, 18-year-old Elie-Anne Tremblay of Quebec City finished in 3rd.
Tory Audet: “It was great, it’s so nice and warm here, compared to Sovereign Lake B.C. where I raced last weekend. My skis were fast, big thanks to my wax techs for a great day”.
U Ottawa’s Emma Archibald, from Fall River, Nova Scotia won the women’s standing Para-Nordic class and Catherine Vaillant of Prevost, Quebec was the top sit-skier.
On the men’s side National Team, Next Gen skier Leo Grandbois of Orford had a narrow win in the qualifier, by .3 seconds over another Next Gen skier, Whitehorse, Yukon’s Sasha Masson. Once the heats started, Leo registered comfortable wins, winning the final by 2 and one-half seconds over Masson. Third was Thunder Bay’s Connor McGovern.
Leo Grandbois: “I’m happy with my race today, I felt good. It was nice weather, and the volunteers did an excellent job on the trails. I didn’t race strategic at all; I trusted my form and it worked really well.”
Racing starts up again on Sunday at 9:00 with the Open Men and Women’s 10km skate races.
- Photos: Timothy Austen
- Complete results