We Cracked the Top TEN!!!

Finally, finally, finally! Andrea and I had our best race today and finished 9th overall in the classic sprint. We were only ten seconds behind the fastest Canadian, Robbi Weldon, which is the closest we've ever been to her. We executed everything just the way we had planned, which always makes me happy. We even managed to be close enough on the last long downhill so that I could push on Andrea's pole to keep her in front of me. The added bonus of doing this is that we get going faster going downhill when I push her along - a nice benefit of me being in her slipstream and when every second counts, we can't leave anything to chance. I am so happy that we were able to pull this race together when it really mattered. Phew! We can finally breathe a little easier....

Better still, we improved our Canadian team ranking percentage from 74% to 82%, which, if our math is right, would move us from 12th to 11th on the team ranking list, putting us one place closer to making the 2010 Games. We still are a little nervous as there are 13 athletes competing here at the World Cup series and it will be less than good to be unlucky number 13. There is also another athlete not here who qualified for the Games last year who has not started at any World Cup races this year and we have yet to hear from CCC if that individual will be named to the team or not. So really, potentially two of us won't be making the trip to Vancouver for the Paralympics and I would like to be well within the 12 athlete quota so I could relax a bit. With only 2 races left, I'm pretty confident we can hang onto our 11th place ranking, but you never know when someone will have the race of their life!

Now in that today was a sprint race, we went through the prologue and finished 9th, which qualified us to go onto the quarter-finals. Unfortunately I fell when I hit a rut I couldn't see and in a sprint, a fall pretty much seals your fate as a late finisher. Still, I got up as quick as I could and we got right back into our race plan because in a sprint, anyone can fall at any time so you can never give up. But today I was the only one to fall and we finished 3rd in our heat. I had to be top two to advance. Still, our placing is good heading towards the Games....

Anyway, off to bed I go! Biathlon pursuit tomorrow...last race before heading home!