The ski trails in Salmon Arm were the site of fierce-but-fun competition during the championship event of the Teck BC Cup series March 1-3.
The hosting Larch Hills Nordic Club has won the trophy every year since 2014, and claimed the trophy again in 2019 with 132 points versus 86 points for second place Telemark Nordic Club and 56 for Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club. The Larch Hills Junior Race Team also won six of the first place aggregate trophies for the 2018-19 season. Full results are available on www.zone4.ca. A highlight of the awards banquet on Saturday night at the Splatsin Community Centre was when Revelstoke Nordics’ athletes broke out into a flash mob.
Read More: Larch Hills skiers top heats in day one of Teck BC Championships
This event included a mass start classic technique event on Friday, an interval start free technique event on Saturday and concluded with a classic technique relay event. New courses were designed by the event organizing committee and included skiing up Roller Coaster and Ermine Frolic trails to add a degree of difficulty. Distances varied from one kilometre for the youngest athletes, a 2-km course for Paranordic competitors, to a 4.3-km for masters competitors in the relay.
The event saw 556 athletes register, representing 23 clubs from B.C., Alberta, Sweden and the U.S. The six-race, three-event series culminated in the weekend’s Championships as B.C. athletes accumulate points for aggregate trophies as well as an overall team trophy.
Read More: Day two of the Teck BC Championships hits the Larch Hills trails
Weather conditions leading up to the Championships were ideal, with both cold temperatures and new snow helping to maintain an excellent base. Temperatures stayed cold over the weekend and reached lows of -17 C on Saturday night, but official temperatures at race time were reasonable. This was ideal for waxing without being too cold for participants and volunteers. The Championships event marks the end of the Teck BC Cup series, but both the Teck Okanagan and Teck Coast Cups have events upcoming in March, with the season ending with the Nationals in Gatineau, Que. on March 13-20.
Submitted by Brad Calkins
@Jodi_Brak117
jodi.brak@saobserver.net
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