December 12, Gatineau, Quebec.

Thunder Bay’s National Team Development Centre (NTDC) athletes had several podiums and strong performances this weekend at the Eastern Canada Cup races held in Gatineau Quebec.

Racing hard in Saturday’s skate sprints on the rain soaked Nakkertok ski trails, all the NTDC athletes made it into the event quarterfinals.  Julian Smith eventually took the gold, Pierre Grall-Johnson the bronze and Guillaume Pelchat nabbed fourth place in the Senior Men’s competition.  On the Senior Women’s side, Shaylynn Loewen surged back after getting tangled up in the finals to claim silver.

In Sunday’s races, a classic interval start event held under sunny skies, Smith and Grall-Johnson traded the lead back and forth in the Senior Men’s category, with Smith eventually claiming gold for the second day in a row and Grall-Johnston moving up one to grab silver. In the U20 Men’s category, Guillaume Pelchat and Kendyn Mashinter earned silver and bronze, while Max Mahaffy came 14^th.

On the women’s side Sunday, Shaylynn Loewen finished just out of the medals in fourth for Senior Women and Sophie Tremblay earned ninth in the U20 category.

In all, more than 500 athletes competed in the two day competition, which was the first major race held in Ontario in over a year and a half.  Thunder Bay also was represented by a number of athletes from Big Thunder Nordic Ski Club, Lakehead University Thunderwolves, and Lappe Nordic Ski Club who put in a number of very strong performances in the event. For full results go to  https://zone4.ca/event/2021/candycanecup/  .

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For more information contact:            Heather Foster       [email protected]     807-629-3489