Cross Country Canada’s largest junior and U23 world championships team to compete outside of Canada will have two Yukon skiers.

Whitehorse’s Dahria Beatty, 22, was named to the U23 team yesterday along with Natalie Hynes, who was named to the junior team.

The team of 23 was decided through a series of three races at the L.L.Bean US Cross Country Ski Championships in Soldier Hollow, Utah. The selection committee used a classic sprint, distance skate and distance classic races to select the team.

Beatty was pre-selected for the U23 team thanks to her world cup points from before Christmas.

“The US nationals has been a bit turbulent for me with the volume, altitude and challenging conditions but this was never a week I was planning to peak for and there has been lots of good learning from it and some decent results as well,” said Beatty. “I am confident that when I come back in three weeks, I will be racing faster and smarter thanks to this week of races.”

The junior and U23 world championships will be held at the same venue as US nationals at the end of January.

Hynes qualified thanks to a stellar classic distance race where she was the second Canadian and fourth overall.

“Natalie was battling a cold prior to the race [and] demonstrated great determination and resolve in order to get that performance,” said Team Yukon coach Alain Masson.

Masson, who had a team of six junior Yukon skiers (Hynes and Marcus Deuling raced with their school team, the University of Alaska Anchorage, while Beatty (U23), Emily Nishikawa (senior) and Knute Johngaard (senior) are all national team members) was pleased with the racing from the Yukoners.

“It was a great event with some of the largest fields assembled in North America’s history,” he said of the event, where he estimates there were more than 600 skiers.

The world junior and U23 team will reconvene in Canmore for a training camp ahead of the main competition at the end of the month.

On the biathlon circuit, the Yukon will also have a representative at the 2017 world youth and junior championships in Slovakia, Feb. 14 to March 2.

Nadia Moser was named to the team this week thanks to a pair of podium performances in Valcartier, Que. last weekend.

Moser finished third in the 7.5-kilometre pursuit, shooting 14 of 20 targets. But she won the 7.5K sprint, shooting clean – all of the targets.

This will be Moser’s second world championships, this time as a junior. She had two top 25 finishes at last year’s youth event.