Nina Silitch grabs silver, Andrew McNab 12th in a sprint race: North Americans on day 2 at 2013 Skimo World Champs

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Today’s summary from 2013 Skimo World Champs was written by Eric Carter who is also a passionate skimo racer and xc skier.

February 11^th – Racers from North America went head to head with the best of Europe in the Sprint event at the 2013 Ski Mountaineering World Championships in Pelvoux, France.

Nina Silitch snatches silver for US!

While the Swiss team dominated, the day culminated with American Nina Silitch winning a silver medal, outsprinting Sweden’s Emelie Forsberg in the finals.

This marks the first ever North American medal at Ski Mountaineering World Championships!

The men and women raced on the same course in Pelvoux Village, featuring about 80 meters of climbing with a bootpack section in the middle followed by a descent to the finish.

Racers were taking around three minutes to complete the course with tight times among finishers.

» Daily coverage archive

Top 3 Overall

Men

In the men’s race, Josef Rottmoser of Germany grabbed the win after posting a blistering qualifying time of 2 min and 35 sec, edging out Marcel Marti representing team Switzerland. Yannick Ecoeur, also from Switzerland who qualified 13 seconds slower, rounded out the podium.

1. Josef Rottmoser (Germany)
2. Marcel Marti (Switzerland)
3. Yannick Ecoeur (Switzerland)

Women

Mireille Richard from Switzerland came out on top in the women’s race, besting Nina Silitch (USA) and Emelie Forsberg (Sweden). The final round results were actually a complete reversal of qualifying times.  Emelie’s qualifying time of 3:24 was the fastest of the day for the women.

1. Mireille Richard (Switzerland)
2. Nina Silitch (USA)
3. Emelie Forsberg (Sweden)

From left: gold medalist Mireille Richard (SWI), silver went to Nina Silitch (USA), 9th to Melanie Bernier (CAN), and bronze to Emelie Forsberg (SWE).

North Americans

Canada fielded four male and one female racers while the USA had three male and two female racers in the sprint competition.

Melanie Bernier and Andrew McNab each took the top Canadian place (9^th and 12^th respectively).  Melanie qualified only 10 seconds back from the leader. Peter Knight and Brad Schalles came in tight in 36^th and 37^th place, just missing out on points. Steve Sellers rounded out Team Canada, finishing in 52^nd.

Meredith Edwards of Team USA finished 28^th and last year’s US National Champion Luke Nelson finished just ahead of Max Taam in 32^nd and 33^rd.

NA women:

2) Nina Silitch (USA)

9) Melanie Bernier (CAN) *10 secs back

28) Meredith Edwards (USA)

NA men:

12) Andrew McNab (CAN) *33 secs back

32) Luke Nelson (USA)

33) Max Taam (USA)

36) Peter Knight (CAN)

37) Brad Schalles (CAN)

47) Mateusz Burgunder (USA)

52) Steve Sellers (CAN)

For more info on US team performances check out these blog posts:

Officially from USSMA – http://www.ussma.org/blog/brackec/world-skimo-championships-sprint-race-recap

First hand account from Andy Dorais - http://slcsherpa.blogspot.ca/2013/02/ismf-world-championships-sprint-race.html

Full Results

Full results for all categories can be found here: http://ismf-ski.org/www/index.php?q=content/races-result&register=&page=ListRaceRankingsAction&id_parent=219