Home track advantage seemed to pay off for the Sea to Sky Nordic (SSNC) club at the Biathlon BC Cup event held at Whistler Olympic Park on Feb. 11 to 13.
In the event’s two-day competition days, which consisted of sprint races on Saturday, Feb. 12 followed by mass start races on Sunday, Feb. 13, SSNC athletes reached the podium 13 times, including a sweep of the Sr. Boys mass start.
In that race, Lucas Clements, Jojo Ng and Graham Benson took the top three spots, respectively, while Taje Hansen remained perfect on the year with two more first-place finishes in the Jr. Boys category.
“It went pretty well. I think I skied really fast, I'm really proud of that. My first lap of shooting was really good. I shot clean, but I would have liked to shoot a bit better my second lap because I only shot three. But overall, it was a really good race,” said Hansen, who has now landed on top of the podium five times already this year.
“[The success] is a bit surprising at times because sometimes I won’t feel like I'm having a fantastic race and then I'll see the results and I'll be quite a bit ahead, so that's exciting.
“I think this season all my skiing and shooting is really coming together, because before I was either really good at shooting and not so great at skiing, or really good at skiing and not so good at shooting, but this year it’s just really good, all of it.”
SSNC’s Aiden Firth has also had quite the hot start to the season, finishing second behind Hansen in both BC Cups in Vanderhoof and Quesnel earlier this year as well as picking up another podium finish with a third in the Jr. Boys sprint category in Whistler on Saturday.
On the women’s side of things, both Mia Rodger and Firth’s older sister Sophie were able to add two more podium finishes to their resume, with Rodger grabbing a third in the sprint race and first in mass start race in Jr. Girls, and Sophie snagging a third in the Sr. Girls sprint race and a second in the mass start race.
For Sophie, who has been struggling with cramping issues so far this year, this weekend’s races were all about putting those issues behind her once and for all and getting back to skiing and shooting at the level she expects from herself.
“I’m really happy [with the result]. The first lap my skiing was super solid and I had a good person who I was chasing, so she was a good target to try and catch, but my first shoot was not the best. I shot three for five,” she said. “And then the last lap I just gassed it. So third was good, I've been kind of struggling with cramping a lot so I finally dealt with that which has been really nice so I can podium again.”
According to head of competition for the Whistler BC Cup and assistant shooting coach for the SSNC Dave Clark, the club’s success was just the cherry on top of a successfully run event that went off without a hitch.
“The weather was outstanding, and it was a great day for the SSNC. And as one of the co-event directors it was an amazing weekend of racing with really exciting wins across the board. All the athletes, whether they came first or came last, they all achieved something amazing,” he said. “Nothing ever runs 100-per-cent perfect, but it’s a matter of how you adapt … and work together to problem-solve.”
Two years into COVID, which has kept events off the calendar, and limited athletes to training and doing in-club time trials, everyone from the athletes and parents to event organizers were happy to be back hosting events, competing with neighbouring Nordic clubs and catching up with friends made over the years.
“It's great, I missed it so much. Over COVID we had two seasons where we didn't have any races, so we didn't really know how good the rest of the province was until the first race in Vanderhoof,” said Hansen. “So it’s been really fun seeing everybody, and especially after the races just hanging out with all the clubs, not mattering who won or lost but just having a great time together.”
Next on the schedule for the SSNC, many of the senior boys and girls, as well as the older age categories, will be heading up to Prince George this week for a pre-national-championships camp where athletes can get accustomed to the track before the National Championships come around in March.
Find full results at seatoskynordics.ca.
