Nordic Championships in North Bay
Polish up your cowbells North Bay! Top university Nordic skiing action is coming to your city and the skiers will literally be racing downtown North Bay.
Nipissing University is proud to host the 2014 Ontario University Athletics Nordic Skiing Championships, Tour de Nipissing, February 21 – 23 at locations spanning the city. With an exciting team, an enthusiastic coach, Toivo Kovukoski, and big expectations, the Lakers will be looking to capitalize on their home turf advantage to win some hardware skiing in their own backyard.
Skiers will have an official training day on Thursday, February 20, beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Nipissing’s campus trails (located near the pond).
The action begins on Friday afternoon, with a 6.6 km Classic Interval Start Prologue race starting at 2:00 p.m. on Nipissing’s campus trails.
North Bayites are going to love Saturday’s events as the competition moves to downtown North Bay. By 9:00 a.m., the city's downtown Civic Square (Oak Street and Ferguson) will be transformed into a tented Nipissing Village filled with local artist and cultural exhibitions featuring entertainment, fine arts, food, hot beverages and shopping. To create a truly local winter experience there will be a number of activities for the whole family. Nipissing University’s Fine Arts and Visual Arts department is creating an art installation piece around the race course at the downtown location. There will be a DJ tent where skiers, festival volunteers and public can mingle and warm their toes to the beat while enjoying a Beavertail.
Skiers will be racing adjacent to the North Bay Heritage Museum, starting at 9:00 a.m., with the finals scheduled for 12:30 p.m.
The Championship weekend wraps up on Sunday at North Bay Nordic Club trails with the women’s 10 km race and the men’s 15 km race at 9:30 a.m.
“This is a terrific opportunity for Nipissing and the city to showcase one of our defining characteristics – that we live in a winter wonderland,” said Dr. Harley d’Entremont, vice-president academic and research. “Hosting events of this nature are a lot of work, but the rewards are tremendous. Over the course of the weekend, we will welcome top athletes and coaches from universities all over Ontario. We expect to welcome some 100 athletes, coaches and fans to our university and our city for the Championships.”
"As coach of the Nordic team, I can say that we are delighted to be hosting the Nordic Championships and I think that the people of North Bay are going to have a lot to cheer about and much to shake their cowbells about,” Lakers Nordic head coach Toivo Kovukoski said. “Your Lakers student-athletes have been working very hard all season and are ready to go. I am immensely proud of them and really looking forward to the big weekend.”
“On behalf of the City of North Bay, I would like to say how proud we are to be working with Nipissing University to attract events like this. They really do show off how truly wonderful winter is in North Bay,” said Mayor Al McDonald. “The event will help promote North Bay throughout the Province and the nation. This is great news for our city as we are home to some fantastic young Nordic athletes who will look up to the University student athletes as role models, helping to inspire our youth to value sport and academics.”
“From the team’s perspective, this is a very exciting time and we are really looking forward to racing on our trails and in our home community,” Lakers Nordic skier Kajsa Heyes said. “As student-athletes, we recognize that we are ambassadors for Nipissing University. We take that responsibility seriously and look forward to representing our school at the OUA Championships.”
“This is going to be an exciting weekend for our university, our community and our student-athletes,” said director of athletics, Vito Castiglione. “The downtown events on Saturday, in particular are going to be special. It’s going to be a unique event for North Bay and I’m really happy that Nipissing can celebrate the spirit of competition with our city.”
For more information, including race maps, please visit the website: http://www.tourdenipissing.com/