Northwestel has become the title sponsor of the 2006 Western Canadian cross-country skiing championships, which will be held in Whitehorse next March.

The sponsorship announcement was made at a volunteer appreciation event, held Wednesday by the Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club, the official host of the championships. Northwestel has committed a total of $11,000 in sponsorship support, both in cash and in kind.

'It means we know where we stand financially,' said Claude Chabot, the chief of race for Westerns and the president of Cross Country Yukon, in an interview. 'So we can move forward in the actual planning of the event.

'If we want to attract some of the best athletes in Western Canada, it's good to have some money behind us.'

'We're very pleased to provide support to this significant event,' said Anne Kennedy, Northwestel public affairs director. 'It will certainly be enjoyable for cross country skiers in the Yukon and from elsewhere.

'As well, the Northwestel Westerns will have an economic benefit for the entire community, as visiting skiers will have a variety of requirements for transportation, accommodation and food. These economic spin-offs will be beneficial for many Yukon businesses.'

Chabot is expecting about 200 skiers from Outside to compete at the event, as well as dozens of local athletes. The championships will be the ski club's test event for the 2007 Canada Winter Games.

In order to host cross-country events at the Games, the club has scheduled some major renovations to both the trail system and the stadium. Those changes are expected to be completed in time for the Westerns as well.

'The stadium is the big one,' said Chabot. 'As soon as the ground thaws, we'll start working on that again. Then we're doing some more trail work this year.

'And we're going to widen the bridge over Sumanik Drive as well this summer. All of that brings us up to national standards.'

Chabot said it will be crucial to have the major changes done by this fall, so they can test out all the courses in advance.

Westerns, he said, will actually be tougher to organize than the 2007 Games, since there will be double the number of athletes and there are numerous age categories Canada Games is just men's and women's divisions period.

'It will be more of a challenge, but fun I'm sure,' he stated.

The Yukon Ski Team and Yukon officials have travelled to Westerns many times before, as well as the Arctic Winter Games, so they have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Whitehorse also hosted Westerns in the mid 1990's.

The one thing Chabot is somewhat worried about is snow. While no actual date has been scheduled for the championships yet, it's looking like they will be held in mid-March.

Ideally, they would have been held in the first week, but the 2006 Arctic Winter Games will be on at that time. And they don't want to hold Westerns any earlier than the first week of March because there's a good chance it would be too cold racers can't go out when it's colder than -20 C.

'I'm hoping the kind of snow we've had this year will be a trend,' said Chabot. 'We've had a superb season. This past week has been some of the best skiing we've had all season and it's certainly the best spring skiing I've seen here in a long, long time.'

Chabot said having Westerns as a test event for the Games should be a good attraction for Outside athletes as well. Western skiers will want to come check out the course before 2007, to gain extra experience on it.

'We're going to invite the Alaskans as well. We expect really good support from them.'

The Westerns will include three races over four days a pursuit race, a sprint race and a mass start classic race. Chabot said Whitehorse is basically mimicking the events held at the Canada Games, sticking to the shorter races. At the senior national championships, races run up to 50 kilometres, but at the Canada Games, the longest race is 10 km.

In the past few years, Yukon athletes have done very well at the Western championships.

This season, Emily Nishikawa picked up double-gold at the event, which was held in Hinton Alta., while Ray Sabo claimed a bronze. Hopefully some of the skiers can repeat that success on their home turf next March.

'Competing on the same trails as they train on, you've got to think that's going to give them an advantage,' said Chabot. 'But there are some really strong skiers in Canada right now.'