GERMANY – Russell Kennedy skied career-best races at the world championships, but still, he can’t help but feel a little bit bummed out.
In what's been a career year for the 29-year-old cross-country skier, Kennedy was primed to test fitness and form against the world's best earlier this month, but was slowed down by bacterium at the start of the most prized event of the season.
"I knew something was wrong," said Kennedy, a Canmore local. "My body felt really bad, so I went and told my coach and they isolated me and then I talked to a doctor."
The diagnosis: an ear infection, which blocked up Kennedy's ear and put pressure on one side of his throat.
He immediately went on antibiotics, but was forced out of the Nordic World Ski Championship's sprint on Feb. 25 in Oberstdorf, Germany.
A few days later and still on medication, Kennedy tried competing in the 30-kilometre skiathlon, but dropped out quickly as he could tell "it was going to go the wrong way really fast."
After scoring personal bests on the world cup circuit, it looked as if the most important event before the Olympics was wasting away while he sat on the sidelines.
However, on March 2, the day before the 15-km, Kennedy was off the antibiotics and ready to go, even if he wasn't at 100 per cent. He barely slipped into 30th spot, beating U.S.A's Simeon Hamilton by 0.1 second to achieve a personal best at the world championships.
He went on to help the men's relay finish 10th on March 5, powering the team in the third leg. He placed 28th in the 50-km - a new personal best - on March 7 as he began to feel like himself.
Despite impressive results to finish, Kennedy was irked he was unable to perform at his absolute peak.
"I was little bummed initially," said the 2018 Olympian. "I think just because it was the best preparation I ever had for a world championship event and I was just excited to see where that took me and I had some good results earlier in the season."
However, there is a silver lining for Kennedy.
"There's nothing better than knowing what you did and the plan you put in place worked to some degree," he said. "Seeing how my form played into it is a huge confidence builder knowing my championship didn’t go perfect and I still got PBs. That just helped me know what I was doing throughout the summer was working and if I can continue for another summer in the fall it should be a good season."
BEATTY'S LOOKS TO REBOUND
Dahria Beatty will be the first to admit her season hasn't gone according to plan.
The past-Olympian has struggled throughout the "more stressful" shortened season and it continued at the Nordic World Ski Championships.
"Things haven't quite come together for me the way I was hoping," said the 27-year-old Whitehorse-native. "I was quite disappointed to come away from the sprint in 38th. Sprint is probably my main focus from world champs and I didn't ski as well technically or execute the way I was hoping to or knowing I should be able to."
In longer distances, Beatty finished 44th in the 10-km and 34th in the 30-km. In relays, she and teammate Maya MacIsaac-Jones finished 12th in team sprint, and Canada's 4X5-km was ninth.
Shorter distances are Beatty's specialty, though, and after Nordiq Canada skipped nearly two months of events this season, there were only three sprint events remaining for more practice ahead of the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Her best result came at the end of January when she place 32nd, which still isn’t up to her regular standards.
"I didn’t put my best foot forward in the three opportunities I had and that was on me and some factors I couldn’t control," she said. "But now that part is over, I can go back to drawing board and be ready to capitalize on the opportunities I receive next year. Fingers crossed."
To wrap up the world cup season, Canadian athletes are competing in Engadin, Switzerland March 13 to 14.
The final races have given some Beatty excitement, all things considered.
“We’re racing at 1,800 metres so it’s quite high,” she said. “All of our races we’ve done on world cup this year have been at sea level, so I’m definitely excited to be back up at altitude. I feel like training and living in Canmore that will be an advantage for us over many people.”
