The Sovereign Lake Ski club of Vernon hosted a record-breaking Midget Championsips this month. Thirteen athletes from the Strathcona Nordic Ski club, ages nine to 12 years, competed against 250 athletes from B.C. and Washington. The fun event was designed to give this age group a variety of racing format opportunities.
The first day started with an interval classic technique race. Gillian Galik of Royson skied to a silver medal. Her sister Maddie was seventh, and teammate Gavin Chatterton of Campbell River came ninth. Special mention to Carly Ram of Comox who came 19th out of 35 in a tough category, despite having a broken thumb and skiing with one pole.
A costume relay followed. Strathcona had three teams: The Strathcona Flash Pants, The Speed Bumps and Out of Bounds. The Galik sisters, Carly Ram of Comox and Nikita Filanovsky of Nanaimo wore their flash pants with pride finishing eighth.
The second day was a King鈥檚 Court Sprint format using free technique. Gillian remains undefeated in B.C. in sprint races 鈥� she dominated her age category to take gold. Gavin won silver in his age category. Maddie made the A final to take sixth place, and Everett Wells of Victoria came 10th for the 2008 boys. Other notable finishes include Jaycee Harmatiuk of Courtenay, Natasha Filanovsky of Nanaimo and Cameron Meldrum of Campbell River, who all showed perseverance to win each of their final heats.
鈥淚 was not only proud of the individual results, but also the amazing team spirit which the athletes showed each other. They raced hard and still had fun,鈥� said coach Jim Bratrud.
Next up for this age group is the Coast Cup races on Mount Washington in March.
Check out Strathcona Nordic鈥檚 website www.strathconanordics.com for more information or to register. Find us on Facebook and Instagram.
