The 2010-'11 season is officially over at Whistler Olympic Park and the doors closed on the season with the 2011 version of the Woppet.
The third annual event saw more than 80 skiers hit the slopes and Callaghan Winter Sports Club (CWSC) representative Max Saenger said it was a nice way to finish the season.
"We had a great turnout for the Woppet," he said. "The numbers were a little bit down from last year but I think it was because we just had the North American Biathlon Championships taking up a lot of our time here. We didn't advertise it as much so to get that kind of turnout is good."
Saenger said that next year the Woppet is likely to be moved up to the end of March for the 2012 edition of the race.
The race saw skiers have the chance to compete in a 30-kilometre Quest race, a 15 km Challenge and a 7.5 km Cruiser race.
Wesley Savill of the Altius Nordic Ski Club won the open men's 30-kilometre race with a time of 1:18:49.4, edging out Squamish resident Matt Neumann by six tenths of a second. The top CWSC racer was Saenger himself, as he placed fourth with a time of 1:25:43. Another CWSC racer, Matteo Abel, placed 10th. The masters 30 km race saw Vicki Haberl of the CWSC place second with a time of 2:09:43 while in the men's masters CWSC racer Kevin Haberl placed 19th.
The 15 km men's open category was won by Brent Murdoch of Whistler Nordics with a time of 46:57.5 while the women's open was won by Holly Sones of the West Coast Nordics group, posting a time of 56:55.6.
Squamish resident Erik Heilig posted the top time in the 7.5 km open boys race, winning the race with a time of 21:17.5. Heilig bested Michael Murdoch of Whistler Nordics by 36 seconds to capture first.
The CWSC also released the results of the Pole to Pedal race, which combined the times of the Woppet and the Super Twoonie race. Savill placed first, with a combined time of 2:25:53.4, with Saenger finishing in second with a time of 2:33:48.
Overall, Saenger said it was a positive season for Whistler Olympic Park.
"We had a lot more local people out to our events this season," he said. "And that's great for helping to build interest in winter sports locally. At our big events in the past, we would get a lot of people from outside the community but this year we were very pleased to see local people more involved and building the sport."
For more information and full results from the Woppet and the Pole to Pedal, visit www.callaghanwintersportsclub.com.
