The Yukon's Dahria Beatty has saved her best performances of her World Cup cross country season for the finale. On March 13, Beatty skied to her best long-distance result in Engadin, Switzerland, placing 23. It was the first top-25 finish for the Whitehorse native in a long-distance race.

Competing in a 10-kilometre classic, Beatty's time was 26:29.2.

Sprinting into the top-30 a handful of times on the World Cup throughout her career, the only other time Beatty has skied into the points in a distance race was in 2016 when she was 26th in a 10-kilometre skate-ski race.

"I’m really happy. It has been a tough season for me so far, but just really happy to have this race today before the end of the season,” said Beatty after completing her three trips around the 3.3-kilometre loop.

“I started with bib 58 so I had a lot of moving up to do. I watched the men’s race, and how Antoine skied having started in a similar position. I just tried to stay relaxed, ski as smooth as I could and not lose contact with the pack.”

By the five-kilometre mark, Beatty had leap-frogged more than half the field, working her way through a difficult course while tactically executing the tricky double poling sections and plowing through the windblown snow on the trails.

“I knew I had the ability to have a strong distance race,” added Beatty. “It has been a weird season. I had the best training season ever and my body felt amazing, but when I got to Europe in January, my body felt off and I wasn’t skiing how I normally feel, which was frustrating.

“It took until the World Championships to feel better. I have been trending in the right direction and finishing 34th in the 30km on an extremely hard course put me in a good mindset for today’s race. The combination of people not liking altitude and I do, great skis and feeling good – it all came together today.”

The winner of the 10-kilometre classic was Russia's Yulia Stupak in 25:13.3. Norway's Heidi Weng was second while Swedish skier Ebba Andersson was third.

Her Canadian teammate, Antoine Cyr, also had a career day on Saturday. Cyr, a World Cup rookie skied to 21st in the men's 15 kilometre classic.

On Sunday, Beatty showed she had more in the tank while beating her Saturday result – skiing to 15th place in the 30-kilometre cross country ski marathon.

Beatty topped Saturday's career-best performance by eight spots after finishing the rare point-to-point pursuit race from St. Moritz to S-chanf in a time of 1:30:15.2.

“Today was awesome. It was so much fun skiing in a big group like that,” said Beatty. “I caught the first chase pack, and it was fun to have so many women to ski with. I finished strong but had nothing left at the end. I can’t think of a better way to finish the season.”

Starting one minute, 16 seconds behind the leaders based on Saturday's results, she pushed through a strong headwind and a dusting of fresh snow to post the best individual performance by a Canadian cross-country skier in the condensed COVID-19 season.

“There was a small gap to a big group of girls that I bridged early, and then tried to hang on to that pack of 15 through 27. The goal was to ski in that pack and hold on and see what I can do,” said Beatty, who added the heavy winds made it critical not to be caught left out skiing on your own. “We caught the pack ahead and were in a large group of about five to 22.

“I took a few turns leading. The race ended with a big climb, which broke things up. I gave it everything I had and was suffering on the downhill to the finish, but I knew what number I was at. When you are fighting for the top, you have a little more dig, and I just gave it my all.”

It is just the second time ever that Beatty has posted a top-15 result on the World Cup, and it was her third top-30 finish in a distance race.