Archive

Conditions perfect for Mono Nordic Invitational

January 21, 2015   ·   0 Comments

The Mono Nordic Ski has been hosting their annual Invitational meet for over 30 years and this year over 200 skiers including individuals, clubs, and high school and university teams turned out to compete on three different courses at Monora Park on Saturday, January 17.

“It’s a growing sport,” Said Club president Ron Jasiuk. “We’re getting more young families. People with young kids are coming to the Club. They’re looking for a lifestyle type sport.”

Although the meet is called an ‘invitational’ event, anyone who wants to can enter and many people from around the region signed up.

For some, the meet is a competitive day for clubs from around the province.

“Kids who race it the Southern Ontario Division circuit, they get points awarded for it so it’s also a sanctioned race by Cross Country Ontario,” Jasiuk explained.

Seven sanctioned clubs too part in the event.

There are three different unique and challenging course that go over 1.5 km, 3km, 5km, and not for the easily discouraged – a full 10km course which is two laps around the 5km course.

Teams from Orangeville District Secondary School and Mayfield Secondary School as well as university teams from Waterloo, Guelph, and U of T competed.

One unique criteria in this event is the use of paraffin wax on the skis.

“We can get into very exotic and expensive waxes to put on the bottom of the skis to make them go faster,” Explained event organizer Alan White. “We’ve agreed that for this series and all the series with the younger skiers we use it – we use the old fashioned paraffin wax. It keeps the cost down. The idea that a kid’s parents can afford to put $100 worth of wax on the skis shouldn’t make them better. What should make them better is they train harder and ski faster. We leveled it by saying you can’t use exotic waxes, it’s paraffin waxes only, and they’re $10 a bar.”

White is also a ‘technical delegate’ and represents the governing body – Cross Country Canada – and is responsible for timing and scoring.

For this event, competitors were starting the race on at a time and racing the clock with a skier leaving the gate every 30 seconds.

It was a busy day with a constant stream of competitors leaving the starting gate while others made the final uphill charge to the finish line.

You can find out more about the Mono Nordic Ski Club by visiting on-line at www.mononordic.com.

Readers Comments (0)