With one week of training back home in Rossland following the Mammoth Camp, Team Black Jack is back at it for another hard training push at Frozen Thunder. The team travels to Canmore, AB each year to ski on this track made from stored snow from the previous year. The Frozen Thunder track is usually close to 2km. The camp included three racing events as well as a large amount of training. The three racing events were individual 10km Skate, Classic Sprint, and a skate sprint qualifier. The excitement of the classic sprint was televised by Bell Television and can be viewed in the gallery to the right!
Black Jack placed well amongst the high caliber competition. Athletes came from around the world, including national team athletes from USA, Ukraine, and Canada. There were also top athletes from teams and training centres across North America.
It was very tough racing with a heavy training load. Some athletes had close to 100 hours under their belt from the past month alone. The team pushed hard through the fatigue, and came out with some exceptional results! Julien Locke, Black Jack’s Senior National Team athlete, had top performances both sprint days, winning the classic sprint heats and finishing 3rd in the skate sprint time trial, only 0.22seconds off the winner Lenny Valias (and off of a world cup selection). Amongst other Black Jack athletes, Remi Drolet is also emerging as one of Canada’s top athletes with a 2nd place finish in the Junior Men’s skate sprint.
This was also a first time skiing on Frozen Thunder for up and coming Black Jack Team members Sophie Edney and Jasmine Drolet. The team is also excited to have Molly Miller training with us, a top Canadian Junior athlete from Kimberley Nordic Club.
The high quality of training was made possible by the hard work and dedication of the team coaching staff. Special thanks to Bob Sawyer and Ken Byram for their additional coaching and support!
The upcoming race calendar is a busy one in December with North American Cup and US Supertour races. We are excited to share the excitement with you, Stay posted for updates!
