Sarah Beaudry was back on her home course this past weekend.
"It's really fun to be at home because I know the trails so well and I know everyone," said Beaudry after easily setting the pace in the junior girls 0.8 kilometre classic sprint at the Otway Nordic Centre on Sunday during the second B.C. Cup cross-country ski event of the season.
"I know all the volunteers and everyone is cheering for you. It's like my second home; I live here as much as my own house."
The 17 year old from the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club finished the sprint with a time of two minutes, fifteen point six seconds ahead of Jill Reynolds of the Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club who came in at 2:28.3.
"It was definitely a really good race," said Beaudry. "I had a really good start which helped me out and then it just kept the lead and just used my power to stay at the front."
She said a good start is especially vital on a short course.
"It's important because it's so short it's harder to pass on other areas of the course so you can avoid getting boxed out," added Beaudry.
The Duchess Park biathlete returned Jan. 30 to Prince George after competing in the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics in Austria, followed by the North American Cup No. 4 in La Patrie, Quebec and is preparing to head to Finland on Feb. 13 for her second youth world championship. Biathlon Canada selected Beaudry as one of eight junior athletes - four girls and four boys - to compete for Canada.
The world competition in Finland is from Feb. 20 to 26. Beaudry is among three British Columbians on the team.
In Saturday's 7.5 kilometre interval junior girls event Beaudry also finished ahead of the pack.
"I went out with some stuff I wanted to work on and I had a really good race," said Beaudry. "I was strong the whole way, so I was really pleased with it. It was good having a good ... race before going to Finland."
There were 181 skiers from across B.C. taking part in at least one race on either Saturday and Sunday, with 158 entered in the sprint races.
The Caledonia Nordic Ski Club (CNSC) had 38 competitors taking part in the event.
Beaudry said it was fun to ski with all the atom, peewee and midget skiers.
"It's neat skiing with all the younger athletes and, hopefully, being able to inspire them to go on and do better," said Beaudry. "I remember when I used to come to B.C. Cups and [thinking] they were the biggest races ever and everyone was there. They were so important and at that age they are really important and it's just neat seeing the kids at that same stage where they're like, 'I've got to do good here.'"
Damian Georgyev of CNSC was first in the atom boys 0.15 km sprint with a 30.8 time ahead of Eric Moore of the Larch Hills Ski Club who came in at 29.7. Georgyev's teammates Erik Hoffman and Quinn Neil were fourth and fifth. In the midget girls 0.35 km classic final CNSC skiers' Claire Lapointe and Sage Bialuski were third and fourth respectively. In the master female 40-plus open 0.8 km classic Jacqui Pettersen of CNSC placed fourth, while CNSC's Iris Unger was fifth. For complete results see the website www.zone4.ca.
One of the tightest finishes Sunday came in the junior boys 2 0.8 km classic as Hollyburn club teammates Lucas Putnam-Rea and Fred Weaver had a photo finish in the A final. Weaver edged his friend by the tip of a ski as he held on despite a final lunge from Putnam-Rea.
The longtime 17-year-old friends have skied together at the Cypress X-country club for the last eight years. Both Putnam-Rea and Weaver are on the B.C. ski team and plan to win the team sprint at nationals March 17 to 24 in Quebec City.
"We've been plotting it for a while," laughed Weaver.
Practice for 2015
Jim Burbee, chief of competition for the cross-country race at Otway, said the mild temperatures were a nice change from last year's minus-20 conditions.
"The skiers are hardly out of sight of the stadium so there's lots of opportunities for the spectators to cheer them on," he said.
The B.C. Cup race was also a training test for the volunteers to work out issues in scoring before the 2015 Canada Winter Games, which Prince George will host.
"We're putting extra effort into training because we know we have to do a national level event in three years," he said.
