Fun, great snow and “go-go-go” were the words flying around at start/transition area of the Vert180 skimo race at Canada Olympic Park. As a great surprise (in Calgary terms) about 15cm of powder fell during the event and temperatures didn’t even drop below -8 C.
Over 70 racers competed in various categories – solo, 2 or 4 person relay teams. Race course lap was the same for all and tested everyone’s skimo racing skills. Yes, the downhill at COP is not the most exciting but the atmosphere of a lap night race easily makes up for it.
Race results and some interesting facts
The solo categories were won by Peter Knight in men’s and Heather Anderson in women’s. They managed to complete 15 and 13 laps respectively.
523 was the number of total laps climbed in all categories combined.
There were 4 youth and teenage racers spread around various teams – Anna Sellers, Stephanie Toft, Kate Kuba and Martin Carnogursky (3 girls, 1 guy).
Fastest lap recorded was by Reiner Thoni at 7 min 23 sec and happened around 1h into the race. For women, this honor likely went to Melanie Bernier but an official time wasn’t recorded.
Youngest racer was a 12 year-old Anna Sellers from Canmore, Alberta. It is worth to mention that Anna competed in a biathlon race earlier that day! And did a classic cross country race on Sunday!
Photos and a different spin on the report from Golden Skimo.
Were you there? Or weren’t but have questions?
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If you missed the event but have questions about it or want to attend other skimo events ask via comments below.