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Nelson Nordic skiers hold their own at BC Cup in West Kelowna

Contributor
By Contributor
March 14th, 2023

By Cedric Chewter

After the last two BC Cup race weekends, the Nelson Nordic Team was feeling better than ever.

The BC Championships weekend was held on March 3-5 at Telemark Nordic in West Kelowna. This event had been hyped up within the Nelson Nordic team for the last two months. 

More than 700 people raced in Kelowna, 15 of which were from Nelson — which is one of the largest groups  from Nelson Nordic that have gone to the BC Championships.

Our team went into this race with high spirits, and left having lots of fun.

On Friday, Nelson raced a mass start skate race, with athletes racing on courses from 1.5km to 3.75km.

In the U10 Girl category, Helen Davina finished in 13th.

In the U12 Boy category, Philemon Hetu finished seventh, then Linden Chewter in 17th, closely followed by teammate Elliot Davina in 18th. In the U14 Boy category, Dawson Abraham placed fourth, followed by Gabriel Janz in eighth, and Cedric Chewter in 18th.

Then in U16 girls, Aleah Smith in second, and in the U18 girls, Maya Abraham finished seventh.

In the Masters Woman 30-39, Marley Chewter narrowly placed second in a sprint for the finish. In the Men's Masters 40-49, Sebastien Hade-Hetu got a seventh, and Andrew Chewter in 16th. This wrapped up the racing for the day, most heading to bed  early for the next day of racing.

After an early warm-up run in the morning, Nelson headed to the venue for another day full of exciting races.

Saturday was an interval start classic race with the earliest racer starting at 10:27:30 and the last racers starting at 12:32:15 – yes, this was a long day of races.

In the U10 Girls category Davina finished in 12th. Then in the U12 Boys category, Hetu got a 13th, with Chewter close behind with a 14th, with Davina coming in 19th.

Next was the U14 Boys with the biggest category of the day, Abraham in fifth, Janz in ninth, and Chewter in 12th. In the U14 Girls, Raya Kipkie got a 30th.

In the U16 Girls category, Smith got second. Also getting the silver was Abraham from the U18 Girls category.

Winning the silver medal as well was Chewter from the Masters Woman 30-39.

In the Masters Men 40-49, Hade-Hetu got a 10th, followed closely by Scott Kipkie in 12th, and in 20th Chewter.

An awards ceremony was held that evening for the overall series champions, and our very own Aleah Smith placed first in U16 girls and Marley Chewter also in first place.

For the relay on Sunday we had five official teams and one unofficial team.

In the youngest race our U10 Girls team, Sequin Trio, got sixth.

Then in the U14 Boys category we had two teams, Sleep is for Studs got sixth, and The Nelson Nerds got 22nd.

In the U20 Woman category, Business On Top got ninth.

Then in the Open men category, the SASsy Cariboos got 21st. And in the Open Woman category, the Kootenay Beauty Pageant got 18th. This was the last day of racing and many were tired.



Overall Nelson Nordic had a blast at the championships.

Thanks Telemark Nordic Club for holding this event that many of us enjoyed.

Aleah Smith is pictured on the podium for the first-place aggregate in the U16 Girls Division. — Submitted photo

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