Viktoria Koskenoja at Canadian Championships
By Sault Star Staff, The Sault Star, March 13, 2002

Koskenoja beats stress, Canada's best

Viktoria Koskenoja says she overcame a couple of obstacles during a trip to Alberta last week.

The 15-year-old White Pines student took care of handling stressful situations as well as Amanda Ammar and it earned her some medals and a national title in the process.

Koskenoja is the Canadian juvenile girls' cross-country ski champion today after beating the field in a five-kilometre classic race last Friday in Canmore.

She also added bronze medals to her collection from third-place finishes Saturday, in the 1km sprint, and Sunday, in the 7.5km freestyle final.

She beat Ammar, favoured in Friday's race, despite having to ski first overall — Ammar began 30 seconds later — and took care of the stress factor in the final stages of her race and while waiting to learn her finish.

"I'm not a confident person and stress has played a role in the past," she said, "but this year's nationals seemed a lot less stressful.

"I always knew I was physically capable of doing something like this (winning the nationals), but the mental part is something else. That day (Friday) I was strong in both."

Koskenoja finished fifth overall at the nationals last year and admits that stress played a role. She made sure it didn't happen again.

"I knew my (Friday) race went really well, but it was kind of scary. I had to go first among the A group, and I knew that all of the girls behind me, including Amanda, were good," she explained.

"My coach kept telling me at the splits that I was first, and I felt good about my race when I finished. But then I had to wait and watch. That's when it became stressful. I had to go for a cool-down because I couldn't take it."

The win was timely because Koskenoja will be entering her final year of secondary school this fall and doesn't know if she can continue to fit cross-country skiing into her plans.

She'll contemplate options a couple of weeks from know when she ravels to Vermont, as part of the Ontario team, to compete in a spring event.