Two veteran squads captured the first titles of the week-long Haywood Ski Nationals on Saturday.

Hometown girls Emily Nishikawa and Kendra Murray stormed to the top of the women’s podium.

And Canmore residents Jesse Cockney and three-time Olympian Ivan Babikov – skiing out of Foothills Nordic Ski Club – won the men’s classic-ski team sprint.

The team sprint races consisted of each athlete skiing a 1.4-kilometre loop three times. Athletes tag their teammate between each leg.

“It was a super fun race and so awesome to race in front of a home crowd with Emily,” said Murray. “I came into today with the focus of using this as a good race prep for (Sunday). There were tons of people cheering, and it was so nice to have the locals celebrating with us at the finish.”

Nakkertok skiers Alexander Slobodian and Claire Grall-Johnson finished in second place, while Hardwood Hills athletes, Madison Fraser and Isabella Howden, rounded out the women’s podium in third place.

Meanwhile, Cockney and Babikov – who both posted top-10 finishes in the Ski Tour Canada – continued their hot streak to end the season.

The Olympians got off to a slow start in the final round, but stormed back to take the gold medal.

“It is awesome to win a gold for Foothills Nordic,” said Cockney. “It didn’t look good at the start. We started with grip wax and then switched to double poling. It was all Babs today. He set me up to make it happen.”

“I just wanted to keep fighting to the end,” said Babikov, who posted back-to-back top-10s and a 14th place finish to end the Ski Tour Canada. “I kept Jesse in the fighting position, and he came through in the end.”

Yannick Lapierre and Patrick Stewart-Jones from the Nakkertok Club celebrated the silver medal, while Lappe Nordic athletes from Thunder Bay, Ont., Andy Shields and Evan Palmer-Charrette skied to the bronze.

While Whitehorse was abuzz with ski action, another Yukoner was starring on the International Paralympic Committee circuit in Finland.

Brian McKeever and guide Graham Nishikawa – Emily’s older brother – put a golden stamp on a bittersweet season by winning the final World Cup race of the year Sunday in Vuokatti.

Feeding off their first IPC victory in their first para-Nordic start of the year on Saturday, McKeever, of Canmore, Alta., and Nishikawa put the hurt on the field again Sunday – this time in the men’s 10-km skate-ski race.

The Canadian duo clocked a winning time of 22 minutes, 31.1 seconds in the visually impaired division.

“I am not really good judging the pace in these 10-km races,” said McKeever, 36. “These distances are Nish’s bread and butter so he was super good today, setting a quick pace from the start – almost too good.”

The longtime friends and Canadian teammates – who united for the first time at the 2014 Paralympics – pushed the throttle down and never let up while battling through strong head winds and a challenging course layout.

“We put in a really good effort today,” said McKeever. “Nish was on fire for the first five kms, and that moved us into a solid position. We were able to build on that pace, and nobody was able to respond.”