From James Cunningham - Head Coach

Well, the team came through with some more excellent performances and this time we came out with a pair of medals!! In the first race of the day, the men's 15km mass start skate race, Gavin Hamilton took the Silver medal in the final stretches of the race. Shortly after in the women's 10km race, Alana Thomas led the way for Ontario with another come from behind sprint for the Bronze medal. It was a thrilling day for everyone on the team, and especially for Gavin's parents who were breaking down the fences in the closing seconds of the race. After a week of near podium performances it was great to finally have the Ontario Flag raised at the medal ceremonies, and twice in one day. At this point in the week the athletes are starting to feel the fatigue and everyone showed amazing perseverance to finish the races with such strong performances. In total we had another five top-10's, including a 6th for Mallory and 9th for Jesse and 10th for Natasha.

The men's race unfolded as expected in a mass start. The leading pack skied together for a majority of the race with skiers gradually dropping off the back. Ontario had four skiers in the pack for most of the first two laps and by the 4th lap it was just Gavin and Jesse. Gavin was feeling really strong and started to push the pace, leaving only the NWT and Alberta skier. Coming down the final hill into the stadium, Gavin was sitting in 2nd place and put in a great effort to try and pass the leading skier. In the end he was just edged out for the win and settled for the Silver Medal. The women's race was a little more strategic, with no skier looking to push the pace on the early laps. The lead group of 8+ skiers consisted of a number of skiers from Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and BC. Alana stayed near the front of the race from the very start and always looked in control of her effort. The women said that they had a lot of jockeying for position during the race on the narrow twisty trails in Whitehorse. For the coaches and spectators it would have been much less stressful if the women had pushed the pace and dropped the lead pack down to a handful of skiers, but they insisted on raising our blood pressure and making everyone wait until the final lap around the stadium. When the skiers crested the hill and came into the stadium it was down to a group of four skiers with another two 20m behind. Alana came around the final corner in 4th and made a great move to pull in front of the Quebec skier and sprint to the Bronze medal, Mallory finished a few seconds behind in 6th place.

It was great to see two Ontario athletes on the podium and we are looking to crowd the podium after the relay races tomorrow. Overall, Ontario is within striking distance of taking the overall title for the week-long competition (using a specific CWG scoring criteria for flag points). The team is certainly a medal favourite in both the men's and women's relays scheduled for 11:30 and 1:30 on Friday.