With all the opportunities to ski your buns off around here, it’s no wonder that the Hills produces some of the finest cross-country ski racers in Canada.

Racers with Nakkertok Nordic based in Cantley made their home club proud recently with bronze-medal wins during the Western Canada Cup in B.C., and a top Canadian finish at the World Cup in Sweden.

The Western Canada Cup was held in Sovereign Lake near Vernon B.C. on Dec. 3. Nakkertok’s Anna Stewart, originally from Thunder Bay, placed third out of 71 racers in the women’s open classic sprint, while Luke Allan from Ottawa beat out nearly 90 racers to claim bronze in the men’s open classic sprint.Chelsea’s Mats Halvorsen took 6th place in the same race.

The day before, Stewart finished 11th and Allan finished 10th in their respective women’s and men’s 10-km skate. Another Nakkertok racer, Clara Hegan from Ottawa, won a bronze medal in the U20 women’s race.

Canada’s cross-country ski team is currently competing in the World Cup halfway across the world in Gällivare, Sweden, where Nakkertok’s Katherine Stewart-Jones led the rest of Team Canada two weekends in a row. Most recently, Stewart-Jones scored a 34th place finish in the sprint and 36th in a 10k skate race, the third best World Cup sprint race in her career.

Gatineau’s Antoine Cyr also raced at the World Cup, finishing 16th in the sprint on Dec 10, narrowly missing the quarterfinals.This is his best result so far this season. Cyr also finished 24th in the 10k skate.

The World Cup moves to Trondheim, Norway for races taking place over the weekend of Dec. 16 and 17.

From Dec. 15-17, Nakkertok will host an Eastern Canada Cup event known as the Candy Cane Cup. The club predicts that more than 600 skiers from across Eastern Canada will take part in vying for over $11,000 of prize money.