Beatty and company compete at 2021 FIS Nordic World Ski Championship
Yukon’s Dahria Beatty and her Team Canada teammates were in Oberstdorf, Germany, for the 2021 FIS Nordic World Ski Championship from Feb. 23 to March 7.
Women’s competition got underway on Feb. 25 with the classic sprint qualifications and final.
Beatty was the top Canadian in qualifications, finishing 38th but missing the cut for the finals. Other Canadians in the field included Katherine Stewart-Jones in 41st, Maya MacIsaac-Jones in 47th, and Laura Leclair in 51st.
Victory in the finals went to Sweden’s Jonna Sundling, with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla second and Slovenian Anamarija Lampic third.
Next up for Beatty was the women’s team sprint semifinals on Feb. 28. In the second semifinal, Beatty and MacIsaac-Jones placed sixth, finishing 12th overall and missing the finals by just two places.
The winner of the finals was the Swedish duo of Maja Dahlqvist and Sundling, followed by Switzerland’s Laurien Van Der Graaff and Nadine Faendrich in second, and Slovenia’s Eva Urevc and Lampic in third.
On March 2nd, the women were again on the trails for the 10-kilometre free race.
Cendrine Browne was the top Canadian, placing 27th overall. Beatty was the next Canadian finisher in 44th, while Leclair was 57th.
Norwegian Therese Johaug won gold, with Swedish skiers Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson winning silver and bronze respectively.
Canada skied to a ninth-place finish in the four by five-km relay on March 4.
Stewart-Jones, Beatty, Browne, and Leclair combined to finish three minutes and 42.1 seconds off the winning time of Norway.
Team Norway – comprised of Tiril Udnes Weng, Heidi Weng, Johaug, and Helene Marie Fossesholm – won with a time of 53 minutes and 43.2 seconds.
The final event of the championship for Beatty was the women’s classic 30-km race.
Beatty placed 34th in the race, with fellow Canadians Stewart-Jones and Browne finishing 23rd and 27th respectively.
Gold again went to Johaug, with Heidi Weng winning silver and Karlsson winning bronze.
This year marked the third time Oberstdorf has played host to the World Championships. The most recent occassion was in 2005, when Sara Renner won Canada’s first-ever World Championship medal.
The final event of the World Cup season is in Engadin, Switzerland, on March 13 and 14. It consists of a 10-km classic mass-start race on the 13th and a 30-km free pursuit on the 14th.
As of March 12, Stewart-Jones, Browne and Beatty are all scheduled to race for Canada per the FIS startlist.
