Canada's best cross-country skiers carved through the trails at Highlands Nordic Centre in Duntroon in four days of racing ending Sunday at the Haywood Noram Cup/Teck Cominco Sprints events hosted by the Highands Trail Blazers Club.
Chandra Crawford, an Olympic Gold medallist at Torino in 2006, cruised to victory in a series of heats and the final Saturday, a 1200-metre freestyle sprint.
"Chandra skied strong and was in control all day," said Eric de Nys, coach of the Canadian cross-country ski team. "You can tell she was having fun and this is good preparation for her heading into the World Cup."
Canadian national ski team member Phil Widmer of Banff also set himself up for the World Cup event in Canmore later this month with the open men's title, a 1200-metre sprint.
Widmer, 24, was the fastest of the top-30 in qualifying heats and played with the field of competitors.
"I really enjoyed this course and there was a number of tactics that you could take," said Widmer, who admitted he altered between strategies of drafting behind the lead group and taking the outright lead and not looking back throughout the heats. "I did a little bit of everything today but in the final I took control of the front and gave it everything I had."
The event included national team trials to qualify skiers for Canada's world junior team and under-23 teams heading to Poland in early February. It also doubled as the first in a series of four Ontario Cup events held throughout the province.
In opening race events Thursday, Olympic medalist Sara Renner powered past Madeleine Williams just metres from the finish for a 1.1-second win in the first race at the world junior and under-23 trials. The 2 x 5k classic/free pursuit event featured at total climb of 164 metres.
Highlands Trail Blazers introduced skiers to a new heated tent and warmup and chillout areas provided with the assistance of an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant. The grant also assisted the club with the purchase of new timing equipment that will also be used for the Ontario Para Nordic Championships and the 2008 Ontario Winter Games this year.
Highlands is also using this event as a stepping stone in training volunteers in preparation for the National Championships which will hosted in Duntroon in March 2009.
