Full team of four ladies and four men start and finish gruelling 30K and 50K mass start skate races

For the first time in at least 20 years, four Canadian women started and finished the gruelling 30K mass start skate race at the world championships Saturday

Cendrine Browne, Dahria Beatty, Emily Nishikawa and Katherine Stewart-Jones posted top 41 results with Beatty crossing the line 34th and Nishikawa finishing 40th.

With cooler conditions than earlier in the week and hardpacked trails, Beatty was in the mix for the first five kilometres, but dropped out of the lead group as the pace intensified.

“All in all it has been a great team World Championships for the young Canadian women’s team that are developing some good competitiveness at the international level,” said a race report on Cross Country Canada’s website.

Sunday saw the men hit the course for their 50K long-distance mass start skate race.

Conditions were a little warmer than they were for the women and Johnsgaard skied to 55th.

Teammate Alex Harvey skied to his first individual world championship gold medal in the race.

Next up for the Canadians are the final three world cup events, including a sprint in Drammen, Norway Wednesday, which Beatty is expected to start.

The season wraps up in Quebec City March 17-19 with sprints, mass-starts and pursuit races.