After struggling to make snow this week, a light snow fell on the final day of the FIS Eastern/Candy Cane Cup at Nakkertok Ski Centre on Sunday. Today’s event, presented by Tourisme Outaouais and Ville de Gatineau was a 10k skate race and National Team skier Leo Grandbois made it two wins in a row in the Open category, after winning the sprint on Saturday. 

Leo, from Orford, Quebec, set the standard throughout the 6-lap course, finishing with his second gold medal of the weekend, just over 10 seconds ahead of Sainte-Julie’s Xavier Lefebvre. Julian Smith of Oxenden, Ontario, last year’s double gold medalist, finished third. 

Leo Grandbois: “It’s always good to win in a sprint and do the distance the next day. I’m happy with the form in general. Today was a lot harder than yesterday I thought. It was a course that I had to ski well because there were not many hills, but I am happy with the effort I put in.” 

Mats Halvorsen of Chelsea, Nakkertok Nordic, was the top local racer in 6th place. 

Local racers filled the top of the results sheet in the women’s class as Cantley’s Bronwyn Williams of Nakkertok/Carleton University skied to the top spot 10.4 seconds ahead of Shilo Rousseau of Barrie and the University of Ottawa. In 3rd position was Chelsea’s Tory Audet. Nakkertok claimed 4th and 5th with Zoe Pekos and Clara Hegan, with Chelsea’s Isabelle Haag in 6th. 

Bronwyn Williams: “Super, super fun race today, I really enjoyed skiing the 6 laps and tracking down the other skiers. I always love racing on my home trails at Nakkertok, there is always lots of people cheering me on. 

Saint-Jérôme’s Félix Lafond was the winner in the men’s Paranordic standing competition, with Emma Archibald, from Fall River, Nova Scotia and the University of Ottawa claiming the women’s title. 

In the younger age classes, local skiers also did well. Among many strong performances, were double gold medals for Nakkertok’s Evelyn Davies from Ottawa. Two other Nakkertok skiers, Addison Frank, and Mallory Jansen, also stepped onto the top step of the podium over the weekend. 

Racing now moves off to Mt. Ste Anne for another FIS Eastern Cup next weekend. The next major local event organized by ENGNE will be the Eastern Canadian Championships, Feb. 3-5. 

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. 

• Photos Credits: Timothy Austen 
• Complete results  

For more information or to request an interview:

• Anton Scheier (English), 613-601-8257 media@engne.ca OR 
• Marie-Pier Pelletier-Millette (French), 819-593-1159 mariepierpm@gmail.com