Marshall rules the west

Welcome to Alysson Marshall’s breakout season.

After earning her first cross-country ski World Cup starts in fall, Marshall returned to Canada from Europe and steamrolled the competition at several NorAms in British Columbia. While she’s been knocked off the top of the podium of late, she re-asserted her top dog status with an overall win in the Western Canadian Cross Country championships in Canmore on Sunday (Jan 22).

The mini-tour included a classic ski, sprint and 10 kilometre skate over three days and Marshall proved she was up to the challenge.

“I’m pretty tired, but happy with how this turned out,” she said.

With her mother – who was also her first ski coach – cheering along the way, the 23-year-old phenom was third in the classic ski behind Emily Nishikawa and Alana Thomas. In the sprint, she won the A final, edging Heidi Widmer and Marlis Kromm, while Nishikawa finished fifth. That set up the showdown in the skate sprint pursuit, where Marshall was given a 16-second lead.

“I was going to hold off Emily as long as I could, but she caught me pretty fast. It was pretty back and forth and she caught me on the hills. Luckily, I was able to pass her on the last downhill,” Marshall said.

She did just that, gaining speed on the final downhill and whipped past Nishikawa. Marshall has a reputation as a strong glider and used that to her advantage.

“I was hopeful on the final downhill that I had the race.”

She’s off to the Eastern Championships next weekend, then will head overseas for a weekend of racing. After that, she hopes she’ll get a call to join Dasha Gaiazova, Perianne Jones and Chandra Crawford on the World Cup tour. While she’s happy with her Canadian races, she knows there are more racers to catch.

“It’s great, but in Europe it’s back of the pack. There’s always more to improve.”

Amanda Amarr continued her ascent up the ski ranking ladder by grabbing third place in the mini-tour.

Nishikawa said it’s motivating to race against Marshall every weekend. While she’s happy with second overall, she’s looking for more.

“She’s my biggest competitor and pushes me all the time, and that makes us better skiers.”

“In the skate, I caught her halfway through the first lap, then we were back and forth… I wanted to win the overall really badly. I was launching attacks all over, but I’m happy with today.”

Nishikawa’s big race this year will be the U23 championships in Turkey. The 22-year-old is expecting big things at that competition, and is poised for strong results.

She also received lots of advice from her brother, Graham, who also won silver on the weekend.

“He helps me a lot with tactics and strategy. It’s awesome to have him around. We were both second and hoping for more, but it will come,” Nishikawa said.

She’s also allowing herself to dream big.

“Alysson and I are chasing the NorAm World Cup spot. She has a lead right now, but for next year I hope I can qualify for the World Championships and the Olympics are there after that.”

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Nishikawa finished second, equaling her older brother’s performance, and Amarr continued her climb up the ski ranking ladder by grabbing third place.