(Montreal) The 2023-2024 cross-country ski season is officially launched with the first-ever World Cup of the campaign in Ruka, Finland. In the classic sprint on Friday, Antoine Cyr obtained the best result among Quebec athletes with a 24th place.
The day started well for the 25-year-old cross-country skier who was 21st fastest in qualifying with his time of 2:42.54, which saw him reach the quarter-finals.
Cyr then placed fifth in his group, 2.35 seconds behind American Ben Ogden, first in the wave. The Quebecer’s time of 2 min 39.62 s was not enough to allow him to advance to the semi-final and gave him 24th place in the final ranking, just behind his compatriot Graham Ritchie.
In the final, Norwegian Erik Valnes won ahead of Frenchman Richard Jouve (0.83 seconds) who finished second. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, also from Norway, completed the podium (1.70 seconds).
For their part, Olivier Léveillé and Léo Grandbois finished 58th and 69th respectively.
Katherine Stewart-Jones makes no secret of it, sprints have never been her favorite events. In Ruka on Friday, the Quebecer wanted to test her form and prepare as much as possible for the next races this weekend.
The Chelsea athlete took 40th place in the qualifiers and was unable to reach the elimination bracket.
“I think everything still went well. The journey is never easy here in Ruka. It will be good for the rest of the weekend to have pushed to the maximum today (Friday) and to have had a little soreness. I wanted to ski the right way and I’m happy with my race,” said Stewart-Jones in an interview with Sportcom.
Stewart-Jones worked hard in training during the off-season. She participated in numerous preparatory camps in order to start the season in the best possible shape.
“I tried to get as much training into my body as possible. I find that my middle of the season last year was less good. I was in France in June with the national team for a camp, otherwise I trained in Canmore, Gatineau and Mont-Sainte-Anne at the Pierre-Harvey National Training Center. I focused a little more on bodybuilding, I can’t wait to see the difference in competition,” she said.
Stewart-Jones believes she will be able to stand out more on Saturday, during the 10 km classic, or Sunday, in the 20 km freestyle mass start. She also had good times in the latter discipline last season, notably placing 13th at the World Cup in Lillehammer, Norway, at the beginning of December.
“I don’t want to have too many expectations, it’s the start of the season and I don’t yet know where I stand compared to the other skiers. I want to improve every weekend, but if I can have a good result tomorrow (Saturday) or Sunday, that would be great,” she concluded.
