Cancelled cross-country ski nationals `disappointing'

Nordiq Canada's announcement that the Canadian ski championships scheduled for March 14-20 at Gatineau's Nakkertok Nordic Ski Centre have been cancelled is “super disappointing” for athletes looking to push ahead in a competitive environment, but it's also “understandable.”

Nakkertok head coach Camille Cheskey remains hopeful that, even with the nationals off the schedule, local skiers will be able to compete this winter, even with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing strict protocols and restrictions.

“I'm still optimistic we can race this winter,” Cheskey said. “If not, it'll be a big loss for the athletes and for the community. Everybody's talking about the Tokyo Olympics (postponed to 2021). Literally eight months later, we've got the Winter Olympics in Beijing. This is a really important year for us, making sure we're fine-tuning.”

Nordiq Canada, saying the longterm health and safety of athletes, coaches, staff and volunteers was its priority, listed the Canadian Ski Championships among the events that would not be held nationally.

Nordiq Canada is encouraging its “community at large” to “do local” this year: train at home and compete in local races if it is deemed safe to do so. In an effort to continue to provide international race opportunities for top Canadian athletes and for the country to continue to improve on the FIS nations ranking list that is critical for World Cup and Olympic quota spots, Nordiq Canada hopes to send teams to World Cup and World Junior/U23/Senior Championship events this winter.

In the absence of trials races, Nordiq Canada will evaluate the fairest method to select the most competitive Canadian teams. Amended criteria are likely to focus on last season's FIS points list and proven international performances. It's expected the details of how this ranking list will be used will be announced next Monday.

From a local standpoint, Cheskey had been hopeful that, despite the pandemic, the nationals could go ahead using proper protocols.

“I'm a fairly optimistic person. I always have been,” he said. “(A couple of months ago), I would have said it was a greater than 50 per cent chance we could pull this off. But, every day that goes by, you see the effects of what's going on and the reality of potential for cancellation was always present.”

While the ski club is located in Quebec's red zone, a return to orange zone status would allow heavily modified events to be held.

“From a daily training perspective, because it's an individual sport, athletes are very, very capable of doing the job they need to do,” Cheskey said. “When it comes to a race component, though, you will never really truly push yourself the way you would when something's on the line. I've asked our athletes to seek that kind of mental state this winter when they do individual, self-led time trials … really, really challenge themselves.”

With vaccines likely on the way soon, there is a hope that, in the home stretch toward the next Winter Olympics, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.

“We've got to start thinking of creative options and some of them are expensive,” Cheskey said. “But, if we don't race very much, where do we go race prior to December 2021? That's one of the question marks.”