Huskies LAURA DESJARDINS (white Canada singlet, 6, Canadian athlete on the right of her other two teammates), ran for Canada on Friday March 4th in the Pan American XC Cup in Caracus, Venezuela.
She was 12th in the 10K race in 39.11 & 3rd Canadian.
She helped Canada finish 2nd behind Peru (the Team Champion) and ahead of the USA, who were 3rd.

It was a tough course, plus, for the Senior Women, it was their longest XC race ever as equality of gender distances was introduced. The course was 5 × 2K loop with each lap featuring 2 longish hills & at least 1 sand downhill part that was soft like at a beach. In addition, it was quite hot, which was a contrast for those coming from the snow storm day in Toronto a couple of days earlier. Over the day, a number of athletes had to drop out due to heat issues.

Needless to say, performance times were slow but in XC, it’s all about placing.

For Laura, the trip was well worth it for her 1st International experience on a different continent.