July 18, 2003 (Whistler, BC) – The Whistler Gravity Festival continues this weekend with the 2003 Tim Hortons MTB Nationals 2003. Riders are pumped and there is a lot of energy flowing around the mountain.

On Saturday, junior men and women will test their skills on the cross-country trails, competing for national titles. Whistler's own Brook Baker (Norco) will be racing both the junior women's event as well as the junior women's downhill later Saturday afternoon.

Saturday afternoon will have the country's best downhillers line up for their seeding runs at 1 pm followed by the finals at 2:30 pm. There was some concern this week that injured riders Jordie Lunn (BeOne) with a broken ankle, and defending National Champ, Dustin Adams, (Giant) with a broken wrist, might have to start the race in order to qualify for Worlds. Pedal Magazine spoke with Sean O'Donnell, CCA High Performance Coordinator, to clarify this concern.

“Athletes with documented medical evidence that confirm an injury are eligible to miss Nationals and still be considered for Worlds, provided it is given to the CCA before the event starts,”  O'Donnell commented.

Pedal referred back to the Selection Criteria outlined on the CCA's website, it states that, “exceptions may be considered on the basis of an injury, sickness or other exceptional circumstance approved by committee and/or Director General (DG). The athlete must submit a written request not later than 24 hours prior to the National Championships with adequate documentation to support non-participation. Written acknowledgement and consent must be given by DG.”

Sunday's schedule of events has the elite men's and women's cross country races taking place, the women starting at 11:00am and the men at 1:30pm.