Ruka, FIN Continental Cup Competitions

This past weekend I competed in my first Continental Cup (COC) competitions of the new year. It was a fun weekend with multiple personal bests! We had two individual competitions here in Ruka, both of which were 1 jump and a 10km race. On the Friday before the weekend we had Official Training on the jump hill followed by a Provisional Round (PCR) of jumping (this is a comp round in case the weather doesn't cooperate later in the weekend). In the PCR I didn't have an awesome jump but ended in 13th place which I was fairly happy with. Ruka is known for its windy conditions on the jump hill and we witnessed that both days of competition. On Saturday we were supposed to jump in the morning but it got postponed until right after lunch. The wind was hard to deal with so they decided to have only one competition round instead of a trial jump and competition round. I had a fairly average jump and was able to fly it fairly well, it was a tough round wind wise. I ended up jumping to 7th place which was my best jump result, I was happy and excited for the race! The race course here is brutal with two big hills that take it out of you, I was able to ski with other athletes and ended up finishing in 9th place, a career best for me! 

Day 1 at the Ruka COC

On Sunday the wind decided to act up again and after postponing the jumping they decided to cancel it and we raced of the PCR I mentioned before, I would be starting in 13th place. I was hoping to jump but I was ok with the PCR result as I would be right in the mix. The race went better than the day before, I was able to ski with more guys and hang on the hills. I stayed ahead of a pack of skiers coming from behind on the last lap and finish in 14th place. It was my most successful competition weekend to date, I was psyched to see positive results on the jump hill helping me translate that to better overall results! If you want to check out results for yourself click here. The rest of the team had good results this weekend as well. On Saturday Stephen Schumann finished in 18th, Adam Loomis in 30th, and Grand Andrews (COC debut) in 39th. On Sunday Adam finished 7th, Stephen finished 13th, Grant in 36th and our Canadian teammate Nathaniel Mah in 39th. 

The team and I decided to have a little fun on Monday after the competitions and rented snowmobiles for a few hours to explore the area, it was super fun! Next up we will be traveling to Otepaa, Estonia on Wednesday for the next COC weekend. I have never been to Estonia so I am excited to see a new place and a new venue, I will post an update after next weekend as well. If you would like to check results for next weekend before I post them go here then click on Otepaa.