Brian McKeever and Erik Carleton swept the cross-country ski events at the Para-Nordic cross-country ski finals, winning three gold medals in Vuokatti, Finland, last week.
McKeever and Carleton, who guides him, tore apart the 10 kilometre course in 25:43, more than a minute ahead of their nearest competitors in the standing/visually impaired category.
“I’m feeling better than I have all year. My shape has been building and it was a pretty solid day all-around for me,” said McKeever. “My skate skiing has been stronger this year and I put it together for the first time in a Para race.”
McKeever credited Carleton with a strong lead in adverse conditions.
It was the first time the duo has defeated Russians Stanislav Choklaev and Maksim Pirogov this year in a skate skiing event.
The Canadian duo began their assault on the podium on March 22 with a victory in the sprint in Vuokatti. Jet lagged after competing in the Ski Nationals in Quebec, they arrived in time to challenge for the sprint title.
“I came here with a good game plan that we executed really well today. Erik skied very tactical. We decided to double-pole the final (distance) which paid off because it started dumping snow,” McKeever said.
Canmore’s Mark Arendz, who has several biathlon races this week, finished sixth in the final.
Momentum carried McKeever and Carleton into Sunday’s (March 25) events where the duo finished the 30 km race with a time of 1:19:44, almost two and a half minutes ahead of second-place finishers Nikolay Polkhin and Ilya Cherepanov of Russia.
“The course is not like a World Cup course, but it does have really sustained gradual climbs,” said McKeever. “I tried to put the hammer down on the climbs. The first climb we pushed hard and got a gap to prevent the field from drafting us. We were able to maintain that gap and kept increasing it where we could. Erik skied great again. We had a strategy and came in here and got it done.”
Canada also won hardware in the sit-ski events, thanks to Chris Klebl of Canmore. He placed 10th in the sprints, but powered to a silver medal in the 20 km sit-ski race and bronze medal in the 10 km sit-ski.
The medals were Klebl’s fifth and sixth of the season after he broke his leg in November.
Colette Bourgonje, one of Canada’s greatest para-nordic athletes, won bronze medals in the women’s 5 km and 15 km race.
“The courses over here are really tough, especially for Chris and Colette, so we are really happy with the way things went today,” said Robin McKeever, head coach of the Canadian Para-Nordic Team. “We all have the same goals here, and that is to win.
“Things worked out well today, and the athletes skied one of their best races of the year.”
