LAPPE — Sometimes finishing second isn’t a bad thing.
For Alison Mackie, it earned her a trip to Italy, where next month she’ll compete for Canada at the World Junior/U23 Nordic Ski Championships.
Mackie, who hails from Edmonton and skis for the Alberta World Cup Academy, took second place in Thursday’s open women’s 1.3-kilometre sprint race at Lappe Nordic, and grabbed the U20 spot up for grabs as the top female finisher in her category.
“I had a pretty good qualifier today and a really good final,” said Mackie, who finished just over a second behind race overall race winner Kate Weaver.
“I’m really excited to qualify for my third world junior championship. It’ll also be my final world junior championships, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
It’s a lot of racing in a very short period of time, Mackie said.
“Sprint days are always challenging, especially when it’s colder out like today because it’s constant stopping and starting. It’s really important to conserve your heat and conserve your energy and make sure you feel well the entire day.”
Her Alberta World Cup Academy teammate Amelia Wells grabbed fourth place overall and earned the U23 berth, the lone athlete in her category to make the open women’s final.
She was all too happy to land a spot on Team Canada on Day 1 of the four-day event.
“I’m really excited. Just to qualify on the first day is really a nice feeling. I had a good qualifier this morning and good heats. So, I’m super excited to be going over to Italy to represent Canada,” said Wells, a Victoria-born skier who now calls Alberta home.
“Skiing well throughout my quarter and semi and then getting to race with all my teammates in the final was super awesome. Having four Academy girls, it felt like a training session with bibs.”
On the men’s side, Canmore, Alta.’s Xavier McKeever, in his third season on the senior national team, took top spot and will represent Canada on the U23 team, edging Remi Drolet by 0.61 seconds to grab the open men’s title and a trip overseas.
“It was a good day today, for sure. It’s always weird coming back from racing World Cup in the first part of the season and to race in Canada, without having raced at all against everyone here,” McKeever said. “I wasn’t really sure how today was going to go, but I felt confident and I’ve had a pretty good track record in classic sprint in Canada.”
McKeever said he had a so-so qualifier, despite a first-place finish, edging former NDTC-Thunder Bay skier Pierre Grall-Johnson for the top seed.
“It was OK, not my best, for sure,” he said. “It was good enough to win the qualifier and move on and usually I find my stride a little bit more in the heats and I feel like I did that today.”
Thunder Bay’s Julian Smith finished fourth in the men’s final, clocking in at 3:04.87, more than three seconds behind McKeever’s time of 3:01.43.
Boucherville, Que.’s Justin Boudreau who didn’t qualify for the final, was the top U20 finisher, taking sixth place in his semifinal heat in a time of 3:31.68.
Thunder Bay’s Brooke Ailey made it to the quarterfinal, but was eliminated from the competition in a race won by Mackie.
Friday’s mass start race begins at noon.
