Annah Hanthorn’s outstanding race results shocked even her at the first NorAm ski races of the season last weekend.

The 19-year-old Yukon cross-country skier won both junior women races in Rossland, B.C., earning some high praise from her coach, Alain Masson.

“Phenomenal,” he said of Hanthorn’s results. “Those were the best two races of her life by far.”

Her race results – 11 kilometres in 32:21.6 and 7.5 km in 21:20.09 – were the fastest of her young career.

Both results were good for gold in the junior women category, while Hanthorn’s 7.5-km result was good for third overall among senior women – one spot ahead of fellow Whitehorse standout Dahria Beatty.

“It was a complete surprise – a very good surprise – but I definitely was not expecting it,” Hanthorn said today from Silver Star, B.C., where she is preparing for this weekend’s NorAm races.

Following Saturday’s 7.5-km race, the girls were cheering on the Yukon boys when the results were posted.

“One of the girls told me: ‘Annah, you’re third overall,’” Hanthorn recounted. “And I was like ‘What? Third junior?’ ‘No, third overall!’ And we kind of started screaming, all of us. We had a group hug. It was pretty exciting.”

She said the races played to her strengths of classic long distance with challenging downhill sections.

According to Hanthorn, her first lap of the 7.5-km race was slow by her standards. She decided to turn it up, and was 12 seconds faster than the rest of the field during the second lap around the course.

Hanthorn was not only the best junior skier, she was also the top U-23 skier, said Masson. Her posted times would have been close to Whitehorse Olympian Emily Nishikawa’s results, had she been present, he added.

“It shows she has made a big jump and improvement since last year,” Masson added. “This weekend, she showed that she is one of the best – if not the best – junior classic skier (in Canada). The classic is really her forte.”

Hanthorn, a native of Fort McPherson, N.W.T., is currently in her second season of serious training with the Yukon ski team.

“I really wanted to get some coaching,” she explained. “I went with my siblings for skis and we’d work with a coach in Yellowknife sometimes ... I really realized that I love racing and going fast on the trails, training and being out in God’s creation.”

The third-oldest of 10 siblings, Hanthorn hopes working with Masson will help push her onto the junior worlds team that will compete in Almaty, Kazakhstan from Feb. 2 to 8.

Results from Sunday’s race and the next two NorAm events will be used to help determine the world junior and U-23 team selections.

Alongside Hanthorn’s outstanding results, other members of the Yukon team also impressed in Rossland.

Fourteen Yukon skiers took part in the weekend races, which was the third in the territory’s Canada Games team selection process.

Masson said the team will be officially announced later this week.

Besides Hanthorn, three other Yukon girls placed in the top-10 in the 11-km classic race, with 15-year-old Hannah Deuling placing fifth, Natalie Hynes seventh, and Adrienne Hynes, 10th.

Knute Johnsgaard had a disappointing weekend, while Simon Cash, 16, proved to be the team’s surprise in the junior male class, said Masson.

“We’ve been training in the Yukon since the nationals in March, but we haven’t competed against other skiers, so we don’t know where we stand,” said Masson.

“You suspect when there’s been a huge improvement, but you only know when you start competing at that level.”