Nakkertok national club title streak extends to lucky #13 at home

By William Bailey & Dan Plouffe

Bolstered by repeat medal wins from Owen Siderius and Clara Hegan on the final day of competition, Nakkertok Nordic cruised to the Canadian club title on its home course Thursday to conclude the 2024 Nordiq Canada Ski Nationals.

Winning the club crown is nothing new for Nakkertok, but it’s safe to say this was the first time in the streak of 13 consecutive titles that there wasn’t a speck of snow in the team’s championship photo.

“It was definitely a whole team effort from the wax team to all the people that made nationals happen in the first place with the lack of snow,” underlines Nakkertok Nordic Ski Club head coach Katherine Denis. “And of course, we can’t forget all the work over these last two years to get our junior skiers up to national par, and our open skiers, who are 18 and older, who pulled off really good efforts over the past couple of days.”

The nationals had initially been scheduled to run until Saturday, but organizers opted to condense the schedule after rain and warm weather made it a monumental task to keep snow on the course.

The mercury hit +12°C on Thursday afternoon as the under-18 and U16 competitors trudged through some slush during their 7.5-kilometre freeskate interval start race.

Siderius earned his third medal, and first gold, in three races when he topped the U16 men’s event in 21:50.1.

Every one of the 124 finishers posted their fastest lap time in their first of three 2.5 km loops, reflecting deteriorating conditions.

Racing earlier in the day on firmer and faster footing, Hegan earned an open women’s division silver medal for the second day in a row and also repeated at the top U20 skier. She covered the 10 km course in 27:19.9, behind only Amelia Wells of Strathcona Nordics (26:57.0) in the field of 95 entrants.

Nakkertok narrowly earned its 12th title in a row last year when it edged Mont-Sainte-Anne 1,792 to 1,768 in the points standings thanks to a solid final-race effort. This year, Nakkertok parlayed home-course advantage into a much more comfortable margin of victory – 1,959 to 1,249 over Mont-Sainte-Anne.

“We recognized about three years ago that a couple of clubs were chasing us and that we really needed to up our game again,” Denis highlighted. “It’s been a work-in-progress with our coaching team and making sure our waxing team was also really good and well-organized for the event. So, it feels like it all came together really nicely this week.”

The Carleton University Ravens women’s team also celebrated a national crown close to home in the Canadian College & University Nordic Championships competition. The Ravens topped the standings with 406 points, followed by University of Calgary with 364 and University of Ottawa at 182.

The Ravens’ Helen McCulligh of Kanata Nordic was second-ranked overall, with podium performances in all three races out of university skiers. Representing Queen’s, Nakkertok’s Katya Semeniuk finished third among university athletes.

Ranked third overall, Chelsea Nordiq’s Ry Prior helped the University of Calgary to a solid men’s team title.

Siderius ranked second overall in the U16 men’s standings, and was best among skiers born in 2008, with teammate Evan Rebane third in the latter category. Nakkertok’s Anna Stewart was best among U23 women and second for open women, Evelyn Davies was third in U16 women, Prior was third in U20 men, and Hegan was tops in the U20 women’s division, followed by McCulligh in third.

Related