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Home News CAN Announces Cross-Country Team for Harbin WU

CAN Announces Cross-Country Team for Harbin WU

FISU 30 January 2009

Cross-country skiers from the University of Calgary and Thunder Bay’s Lakehead University will lead the charge when competition at the 24th Winter Universiade begins February 20 in China.

Canada will be sending a six-man, five-woman team to the Yabuli Ski Resort – located 230 kilometres southeast of the host city of Harbin -, including a pair of Lakehead men and a trio of U of C women, and will be looking to build on the results posted by Canadian athletes at the 2007 Universiade in Turin, Italy.

“At the last games, we had top-15 results from three of our athletes (Jacqui Benson, Skeets Morel and Rhonda Sandau),” said team leader Mary Waddell. “Our relay teams also moved up a few places. I can see some of our athletes bettering those results this year.”

While Canada generally fares well on the World Cup circuit, the expectations for Universiade success are modest.

“Most of Canada’s top international skiers are full-time athletes who may take one or two courses at university,” explained Waddell. “It’s difficult to combine skiing and school because of the tremendous distances involved in participating in the World Cup skiing season.”

“These concerns obviously prevent our best from being at the university games. On the other hand, European skiers can participate in both events. Time, distance and money play a much smaller part in their world. That said, we have put together what we feel is a strong team given our circumstances and would be extremely pleased with any individual results in the top-20. Our relay teams should be in a position to post a top-10 finish.”

Alana ThomasThe women’s team is sending a fairly strong contingent of athletes to China. Alana Thomas (Mississauga, Ont. / Carleton) and Anna Crawford (Thunder Bay, Ont. / Lakehead) have both been posting excellent results on the Canadian circuit this season. Thomas had a top-5 finish at the recently contested Nor-Am Sprint Finals in Canmore, Alta., while Crawford registered top-10 results in a pair of Nor-Am events in Duntroon, Ont., in December.

Alexia Picard-Jolicoeur (St-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que. / Laval), Mallory Deyne (Timmins, Ont. / Lakehead) and Mary Thompson (Woodstock, Ont. / Laurentian) round out the Canadian women’s roster.

A trio of Calgary Dinos finStephen Terreld a spot on the men’s squad, including Terrell Stephen (Calgary) who will be making his second consecutive Universiade appearance. Having registered top-5 finishes in four Nor-Am Sprint events this season, Stephen will be a good bet to improve upon the 56th place finish he posted in the sprint event two years ago in Italy.

Fellow Dino skier Gavin Hamilton (St. Catharines, Ont.) had a slow start to his Nor-Am season, but with three successive top-20 finishes in the new year, Hamilton seems to have found his stride as he prepares for the upcoming games.

Carl Steudler (Calgary / Calgary), Simon Beaudet (St-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que. / Laval), Edward McCarthy (Ottawa / UBC) and Nils Lokken (Saskatoon / UBC-Okanagan) make up the balance of the men’s roster.

In Harbin, Canada’s athletes will participate in a variety of individual and team events over distances ranging from 1.2 km to 30 km.