Event preview: Ski cross action back in Canada's Nakiska
Jan 17, 2020·Ski Cross
After a well deserved Christmas break following the highly intense Cross Alps Tour in December, and hopefully a great start into the New Year, it is time for the ski cross athletes to get back into the start gate and face some rollers, banks, negatives and of course jumps on the first World Cup stop this year, which is in Nakiska, Canada.
Based in the beautiful Canadian province of Alberta, Nakiska is well surrounded by the Rocky Mountains, just 83 kms away from Calgary which presents numerous possibilities for winter sports.
But where have we left off?!
Sandra Naeslund (SWE) has taken the Cross Alps Tour Globe on the women’s side, being the first female athlete to win the Tour three years in a row. On the men’s side, Kevin Drury (CAN) put on the leader bib, taking his first-ever CAT win home. The Cross Alps Tour Nations Cup went to Team Canada, as their very strong team saw at least one athlete on each podium of the CAT.
Naeslund and Drury are therefore from now on World Cup leaders, as we continue with the regular World Cup and its regular rules.
What else did we see this past December?
22-year-old Courtney Hoffos from Canada certainly made an appearance, making it onto the podium at three races out of six in her World Cup debut year.
We also saw a very strong Fanny Smith, who had her 20th World Cup win in Val Thorens at the beginning of the season and then followed the CAT with a second spot in Arosa and finished off with a win at the final pre-Christmas race in San Candido/ Innichen (ITA).
Of course, we don’t want to forget to mention ski cross ace Marielle Thompson, who also had two wins in December (Montafon and Arosa) and took home a solid second place in Innichen.
Therefore, just behind Naeslund with 450 points, Fanny Smith is sitting in second position of the World Cup ranking with 411 points and Marielle Thompson in third with 404 points – this calls for some close battle on Saturday, maybe we will see someone else wearing the leaderbib at the Award Ceremony after the Nakiska race.
No doubt that on the men’s side, Kevin Drury made the performances of his career, making it onto the top of the podium in Val Thorens, Arosa and Innichen, which made him win the Cross Alps Tour.
But he has some tight competition, also from his own teammates.
We saw Kris Mahler (CAN) taking his maiden win in Val Thorens, but also Swiss athlete Ryan Regez seems to be on a run, jumping into third in Val Thorens and taking the win in Montafon.
As for the World Cup standings, sitting behind 2019 bronze medallist Kevin Drury with a total of 396 points, is teammate Kris Mahler with 302 points and in third position we have Frenchman and last year’s globe winner Bastien Midol with a total of 248 points.
So, let’s see who made the most of the Christmas break and who will be able to conquer cold Canadian weather best. So far, it has been a week of temperatures with lows of -30, which prevented trainings of happening for the whole week.
First trainings runs as well as qualies are going down on Friday, Jan 17. There are still some extreme cold temperatures forecasted for this weekend, but come race day, it should get warmer, enabling the athletes to put on a great show in the New Year.
Nakiska title defenders from January 2018 are Sandra Naeslund (SWE) and Paul Eckert (GER).
Qualifications are scheduled for January 17 and finals will go down on January 18 at 12:00 LOC/ 20:00 CET.
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Here are some useful quick links for the upcoming event:
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