After a crash on a steep downhill the previous day violent enough to break his ski binding and force him out the race, Tanner McConkey was out for redemption when he got back on his skis for Sunday’s Teck BC Cup No. 2 interval start race at Otway Nordic Centre.
Seeing the gold medal slip through his hands in Saturday’s mass start event made the 17-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member from Prince George know he had the engine to take him to the top of the podium in his hometown race.
He’s been running with fast company all season on race tours in Western Canada and the United States as he takes aim at provincial and national championships on his racing horizon.
But the chance to win one Sunday on his home trails brought out the animal in McConkey and he was unstoppable in the 15-kilometre race, clocking the fastest time of the day - 37 minutes 49.7 seconds.
“I just went hard on that first lap and made sure I had a good position to go into the second and third lap and it felt good, I had good technique and a lot of energy and kept crushing all those hills, so it was awesome,” said McConkey, a Grade 12 student at Prince George Secondary School.
“The snow was fast and the skis were fast.”
His longtime racing companion Axel Hostyn of Black Jack Ski Club in Rossland put up the best fight, finishing second overall in 38:42.0, just ahead of Riley Hobbs of Hollyburn Ski Club (Vancouver).
An interval start means skiers leave the starting gate at 15-second intervals. McConkey wasn’t sure where he stacked up against the rest of the field until he got the word from a spotter standing in the woods just off the trail.
“I had a couple people yelling splits at me and when I started passing all the kids in front of me I realized I was doing really well,” said McConkey. “Axel started behind me and I was scared the whole time, so I didn’t know where he was, but it ended up going well.”
Hostyn finished second overall in Saturday’s mass start race but that took a lot out of him and he didn’t have the energy to take a serious run and McConkey on Day 2.
“I pushed the pace too much yesterday and I paid for it today,” said the 17-year-old Hostyn. “The first lap I didn’t feel good and coming inti the stadium I was 40 seconds down on Tanner. My goal was not to go out too hard and maybe I went out too easy but I made up for it in the second and third lap. I only lost about five seconds to him in the next to laps and overall it was pretty good race and I’m pretty happy about it.”
McConkey’s climb to the podium at Otway was a far cry from the end of his race Saturday, when he had to walk back down to the stadium carrying his skis.
“I had a five- or six-second lead and was going down the big hill and got too greedy and went into the corner too fast and washed out and the binding broke and I couldn’t finish the race,” he said. “Today was the redemption.”
McConkey was sick for the first BC Cup event a few weeks ago in Revelstoke and didn’t get the results he was hoping for. But he raced in the US Super Tour event Jan. 24-26 in Bozeman, Mont., and earned some FIS points, finishing 45th overall in the sprint, 48th in the 7.5 km classic and 55th in the 20km freestyle.
Then at the Western Canadian championships in Kimberley on Feb. 1 he placed 31st overall in the sprint.
The Prince George races were the final tuneup for many of the racers who will gather in Kelowna for BC Cup championships Feb. 28-March 2, followed by the Nordiq Canada national championships in Canmore, Feb. 17-23.
“Canmore is brutal, it’s all hills and high altitude and it’s going to be rough,” said McConkey. “But I’m excited, I think I’m primed for it.”
Hobbs is in his first year at the U-18 level and won the U18B-1 class, while McConkey and Hostyn are both in their second seasons of U18 competition and finished 1-2 respectively in the U18B-2 class.
Madeleine Wilkie of Larch Hills Ski Club (Salmon Arm) won the overall women’s 15 km interval start in 44:31.9 and shared the U18G-2 podium with Prince George native Kiara Pighin of Telemark Nordic (Kelowna) who finished second in 44:47.1. Nadia Wallin of Williams Lake Ski Club was third overall (45:23.8), racing in the U18G-1 class.
Caledonia’s Aliah Turner was fourth overall (47:09.7) and captured the U20 women’s class.
Other winners by class were as follows:
U23 women – Anna Chatterton, Strathcona Nordics (50:46.2); 60-plus masters men – Scott Forrest, Caledonia (37:28.0); 40-49 masters men – Ryan Chapman, Bulkley Valley (23:03.5); 50-59 masters men – Glenn Bond, Larch Hills 28:20.3; Senior men – Kaden Sim, Hollyburn (41:57.3); U23 men – Nick Veeken, Caledonia 43:51.6); U20 men – Oliver Bell, Black Jack (39:38.7); U16 girls 2 – Eula Palmer Bird, Sovereign Lake (31:26.6); U16 girls 1 – Amelia Moore, Strathcona Nordics (31:55.9); U16 boys 2 -Luc Austin, Black Jack (26:46.8); U16 boys 1 – Chase Pighin, Telemark (29:29.2); U14 girls 2 – Maise Hoehn, Caledonia (16:50.7);U14 girls 1 – Annika Heale, Black Jack (16:33.2); U14 boys 2 – Revelstoke Nordic (14:49.8); Harry Isaacs – Caledonia (17:11.4); U12 girls 1 – Annika Bell, Caledonia (7:35.6); U12 girls 2 – Callie Washbrook, Telemark Nordic (7:01.0); U12 boys 2 – Ryker Ulansky, Telemark (6:09.3); U12 boys 1 – Myles Rodenberger, Bulkley Valley (7:13.3); U10 girls 2 – Kar Gill, Sovereign Lake (4:12.0); U10 girls 1 – Isa Hersee, Bulkley Valley (5:01.0); U10 boys 2 – Henry Bollans (Larch Hills) (3:54.4); U10 boys 1 – Soren Jakobsen, Strathcona Nordics (4:23.1); U8 girls 3 – Olly Lilgert, Bulkley Valley (6:00.9); U8 girls 1 – Saranya Saxena, Caledonia (11:49.7); U8 boys 3 – Ansel Johnson, Bulkley Valley (4:50.9).
