Gareth Williams of the Telemark Racers returned from racing in Europe to win all three of his races at the Haywood NorAm-Buff Sprints Western Canadian Championships at the Otway Nordic Centre in Prince George.
Williams, 18, who represented Canada at the German national cross country ski championships and a Continental Cup in Switzerland, started his winning streak with the opening Junior men’s 10-kilometre skate race and won it by a commanding 28 seconds over Canmore’s Eric Bryne.
The following day, Williams made his way to top spot again after qualifying in the 800-metre Buff sprints. He won his quarter final and semi-final, while moving on to win the final race against five of the best sprinters from B.C., Alberta, and the Yukon by 0.56 seconds.
Sunday saw the Junior men square off in their final event of the weekend in a mass start classic race. Caelan McLean of Whitehorse, and Williams’ rival at last year’s Canada Winter Games, led the first 5 km lap by one second, but Williams proved to be the strongest racer over the remaining three laps to win the 20 km event by just over a minute.
David Walker of Telemark placed sixth in the Friday’s Junior skate race. He had an excellent qualifier on Saturday, putting himself in fifth but he had a fall at the start of his quarter-final and missed qualifying for the semis. He ended his weekend with a fifth-place finish in the 20 km classic race.
Meanwhile, Telemark’s Ben Shipley started the Western championship event with a bronze-medal performance in the interval start skate race. He covered the Juvenile 2000 boys 3.75 km course in 9:31.5, finishing 44 seconds back of Remi Drolet of Rossland. Matt Shipley finished sixth and Ian Williams crossed in 13th place.
Saturday’s 800-metre Buff sprint saw Ian Williams take third to start the quarter-final. All three Telemark racers qualified for the same semi-final but had to settle for racing in the B final. Ian Williams took charge and won that race for seventh overall, with Ben Shipley taking 10th and Matt Shipley 11th.
Sunday’s 10 km classic mass start race had Matt Shipley taking 10th, Ben Shipley eighth, and Ian Williams, fifth, with only a 15-second gap between himself and the bronze-medal finisher.
Testing their abilities at their first Western championships were Gregor Graham, Connor Hobbs, Tristan Lee, Ian Mayer and Grayson McKinnon. Graham and Mayer raced in the 2003 Midget Boys division where on opening day Graham took fourth place in the 3.75 km skate race and Mayer finished 11th.
Graham then earned two silver medals over the next two days. He was 8.97 seconds back of the first-place finisher and also Friday’s race winner, Trond May, in the 1.1km sprint.
In Sunday’s mass start race, Graham and rival May (Salmon Arm) skied their 5km course in a tight race right to the finish, where May managed to beat Graham by only two seconds. Mayer raced to an impressive fifth place in both the sprint and classic race.
Hobbs, Lee , and McKinnon raced in the 2002 Midget boys division where Hobbs took sixth in all his events. McKinnon was seventh the first two days and eighth in Sunday’s 5 km classic race. Lee finished ninth, eighth and seventh in his events.
The latter three Telemark Racers will join teammates Carter Fortney and Michelle Kraetzer on the Zone 2 (Thompson-Okanagan) at the B.C. Winter Games in Penticton this weekend.
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