Close finishes abound
Toby Quinn and Fergus Foster of the Big Thunder Nordic Club came painfully close to earning Ontario Cup series wins on Sunday.
Quinn finished second in the midget boys 5K cross-country ski race held at Lappe Nordic Centre with a time of 15 minutes and three seconds, losing by just over a second to Olivier Palkovits of Sudbury. Austin Valjas of Team Hardwood was third.
Emile Hamm was the other local skier in the top 20 in the division, finishing 15th.
In the closest finish of the day, Brendon Howard of Nakkertok (and Laurentian University) won the juvenile boys 10K by edging Thunder Bay’s Foster by 0.7 of a second.
Marina White, also of Big Thunder, managed to win the midget girls race. She outpaced Kenora’s Lisle Compton by three seconds.
Lakehead University and Big Thunder Bay skier Leif Lennie won the open men’s 15K race with a time of 45:11.7. Lennie beat fellow Big Thunder teammate Greg Kilroy and Lappe’s Werner Schwar.
Toronto’s Mary Thompson was the first to cross the finish line in the open women’s 10K event. Thompson clocked in at 34:05.7. Daphne Haggarty of Big Thunder, Kenora’s Amie Matthews, Lappe’s Katherine Hall and Kelly Henry of Big Thunder rounded out the top five.