Alison Mackie clinched the gold medal in the women’s 20-kilometre mass start, while Canadian Xavier McKeever secured the bronze in the men’s event at the under-23 cross-country skiing championships held in Lillehammer, Norway on Thursday. Mackie, hailing from Edmonton, completed the race in 49 minutes and 41 seconds, with Eva Ingebrigtsen of Norway coming in second and Leonie Perry of France in third place.
Having recently excelled at the Milano-Cortina Games, where she finished eighth in the women’s 10km interval start, the 20-year-old Mackie showed remarkable form. McKeever, on the other hand, finished third in the men’s race with a time of 43:33.1, just 6-10ths of a second behind the gold medalist Elias Keck from Germany. Savelii Korostelev of Russia claimed the silver in the men’s event.
McKeever, a 22-year-old athlete from Canmore, Alberta, also impressed with his Olympic debut, contributing to Canada’s fifth-place finish in the 4×7.5 km relay and sixth place in the men’s team sprint at the recent Olympic Games. The competition in Lillehammer will continue until Sunday.