Category: XCFeeds

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OlNY-g1GI/AAAAAAAAB74/xczXRSKtsT4/s1600-h/IMG_2247.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OlNY-g1GI/AAAAAAAAB74/xczXRSKtsT4/s400/IMG_2247.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427863625373111394″ //aMutt and Jeff. Today was Tyler’s day as he skied to a strong 5th place finish.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Okvq5nD1I/AAAAAAAAB7w/kuXoYBQ0_S4/s1600-h/IMG_2254.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 224px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Okvq5nD1I/AAAAAAAAB7w/kuXoYBQ0_S4/s400/IMG_2254.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427863114788310866″ //aCorey, Heather and Maddie cruising out front early in the J2 girls race. Corey made a great attack on high school hill and held on to beat Heather by 4 seconds. Great racing from some fast girls!br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OkRciFxqI/AAAAAAAAB7o/V7boLLIM-3Q/s1600-h/IMG_2301.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OkRciFxqI/AAAAAAAAB7o/V7boLLIM-3Q/s400/IMG_2301.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427862595535488674″ //aAustin Cobb and Bridger working together.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Oj_acTaXI/AAAAAAAAB7g/KBsGZEPk0iQ/s1600-h/IMG_2310.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Oj_acTaXI/AAAAAAAAB7g/KBsGZEPk0iQ/s400/IMG_2310.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427862285736700274″ //aAustin Caldwell and Bridger hammer the soft hill.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OjtkIkOQI/AAAAAAAAB7Y/n1UijZW-biw/s1600-h/IMG_2312.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OjtkIkOQI/AAAAAAAAB7Y/n1UijZW-biw/s400/IMG_2312.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427861979100625154″ //aKris Freeman put on a clinic and cruised to a 1 minute win.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Ojbkq3LYI/AAAAAAAAB7Q/BfLnqh90JCU/s1600-h/IMG_2308.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Ojbkq3LYI/AAAAAAAAB7Q/BfLnqh90JCU/s400/IMG_2308.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427861670006828418″ //aMagnus had an excellent weekend.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OjJBGb-nI/AAAAAAAAB7I/MhkI4rZUav8/s1600-h/IMG_2268.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OjJBGb-nI/AAAAAAAAB7I/MhkI4rZUav8/s400/IMG_2268.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427861351221164658″ //aIzzy and Megan get their game faces on.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Oi5fS5aaI/AAAAAAAAB7A/ci7XPMwM6I0/s1600-h/IMG_2282.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Oi5fS5aaI/AAAAAAAAB7A/ci7XPMwM6I0/s400/IMG_2282.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427861084448582050″ //aThe early train.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OifWy3CUI/AAAAAAAAB64/ULT7EITw4v0/s1600-h/IMG_2294.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OifWy3CUI/AAAAAAAAB64/ULT7EITw4v0/s400/IMG_2294.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427860635490126146″ //aRachel skied to an impressive 11th place overall.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OiF-GVfSI/AAAAAAAAB6w/K6Mv3_axlK0/s1600-h/IMG_2293.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 362px; height: 400px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OiF-GVfSI/AAAAAAAAB6w/K6Mv3_axlK0/s400/IMG_2293.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427860199364197666″ //aCambria skating well.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Ohksikm4I/AAAAAAAAB6o/lHEQE7JkE7k/s1600-h/IMG_2295.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Ohksikm4I/AAAAAAAAB6o/lHEQE7JkE7k/s400/IMG_2295.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427859627715107714″ //aIssy P had a solid race and redeemed herself after falling in yesterday’s sprint prelim and just missing the heats.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OhQi8L-EI/AAAAAAAAB6g/TlzKIzLQa5U/s1600-h/IMG_2296.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 365px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OhQi8L-EI/AAAAAAAAB6g/TlzKIzLQa5U/s400/IMG_2296.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427859281540806722″ //aHallie getting after it.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Og4i2myTI/AAAAAAAAB6Y/-xky3l3J6jA/s1600-h/IMG_2304.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Og4i2myTI/AAAAAAAAB6Y/-xky3l3J6jA/s400/IMG_2304.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427858869200537906″ //aSkyler was the top Jr and placed 11th overall.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OgZT1cKZI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/1IxKLPwkuO4/s1600-h/IMG_2327.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OgZT1cKZI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/1IxKLPwkuO4/s400/IMG_2327.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427858332593170834″ //aGirls podium; Izzy and Gage sandwich Lauren Jacobs. Cambria had a great race and finished 6th overall, giving SMS 1,2,4 in the J1 girls. Hannah Smith from CSU got 3rd for J1’s, breaking up the SMS sweep.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Of-IawjQI/AAAAAAAAB6I/LUeyiW7hAPk/s1600-h/IMG_2328.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1Of-IawjQI/AAAAAAAAB6I/LUeyiW7hAPk/s400/IMG_2328.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427857865672002818″ //aBrothers Freeman stack the mens podium. Thanks for coming!br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OfeahE3ZI/AAAAAAAAB6A/v5Y4l6d6ENw/s1600-h/IMG_2330.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1OfeahE3ZI/AAAAAAAAB6A/v5Y4l6d6ENw/s400/IMG_2330.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427857320774524306″ //aSome of the team “hanging” after the race.divWe had another great day. Thanks to all of our parents for putting on a great spread for lunch and to Lilly for taking the pictures./divdivResults can be found at nensa.net/divdivAs always, click on any picture to enlarge it./divdivbr //divdivStay tuned for reports from the Jr World Championships/U23 World Championships in Germany as well as the J1 Scando trip in Finalnd./divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-3257904712791212908?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

The weather was beautiful and sunny in Otepää and almost every heat had an exciting finish that went to a photo finish. Qualification saw Saarinen and Jönsson grab the fastest times. The Swede’s showed up very strong today in both the men’s and women’s sides. Whoever though that Sweden would be putting more skiers into the men’s and women’s finals than the Norwegians…perhaps the tables are turning? The Swede’s showed their domination and Jönsson led every single heat he was in from the start to finish while Falk showed her power to out pole Majdic for the win on the women’s side.

Women

The first semi saw Majdic and Visnar in the Slovenian suits which are arguably the loudest suits to ever been worn by cross country skiers. Saarinen bossed the pace and made it difficult even for the likes of Majdic. Unfortunately for the Finn, both Majdic and Falk  out sprinted her in the final stretch to take the automatic qualification spots for the final. Luckily, the second heat was much slower and Saarinen got a lucky loser spot to the final.

The big news in the second semi was Canadian Gaiazova who continued her impressive weekend of World Cup racing as she qualified 10th and was able to get into the semi-final with a lucky loser spot. However, that’s as far as she got in the sprints and ended up 12th on the day. Kowalczyk was one of those who were in the second semi and fell off the back of the pack early on but was able to ski her way back into contention. Coming back into the stadium, the heat was lead by Swede’s Ingemarsdotter and Pajala. It was yet again a very tight heat with all six skiers within 1.1 seconds of each other. Suprisingly, both Kowalczyk and Bjørgen weren’t able to qualify for the final and finished seventh and ninth place on the day.

The final consisted of three Finns, two Swedes and Majdic. Majdic led out hard and left the other skiers wanting. Coming into the final stretch, it was Falk and Majdic who were going head to head. In the last 15 meters Falk found a gear and put in an amazing amount of power to pole past the Slovenian. As they crossed the finish line, Majdic cocked her head as if to say “hey I can only do so much.” As I said in my blog yesterday, I was very interested in seeing how Falk got on today, and she showed today that she is one to be taken seriously. Her performances earlier in the year weren’t flukes.

Results

1. Hanna Falk
2. Petra Majdic
3. Aino Kaisa Saarinen

Notes: Sweden is looking strong on the sprint side as they had five athletes in the quarter finals; four of those skier were able to advance to the semis.

Men

Usually this is Norwegian sprinters bread and butter but today it wasn’t the case. Usual sprinters to top the podium such as Rønning, Dahl and Kjølstad were able to qualify for the top 30.

The first semi was dominated by Jönsson who led from the gun to the line. The second semi saw Lind lead for the beginning, at the top of the main climb, hometown hero Kummel fell. The second semi saw Panzhinskiy and Lind qualify comfortably for the final, but it was not fast enough to see anyone else from the heat pick up any lucky loser spots for the final.

The final saw Jönsson took the lead early on and lead all the way up the hill out of the stadium with Hattestad and Lind hot on his heels. The heat yo-yoed on the final downhill into the final stretch and it was a race between Jönsson, Hattestad and Kruikov. The Swede managed to barely beat Hattestad on the lunge by half a boot while Kruikov came in third. It was arguably the most exciting finish of the season as the top three were separated by half a ski length.

Results

1. Emil Jönsson
2. Ola Vigen Hattestad
3. Nikita Kriukov

Notes: Like the Swedish women, the men showed up to be very strong with six in the top. Only Canadian to qualify, Stefan Kuhn fell in quarter-final, but it looked like he wasn’t going to qualify anyway. China has their best ever qualifier in the men’s event with Qinghai Sun qualify 19th for the day. He was unable to make it out of the quarter-finals. Andrew Newell had yet another good qualifier as he was sixth fastest but was unable to ski out of the quarter-finals and finished 13th overall.

Til Next Time.

The winners of this years Tour de Ski showed no signs of slowing down as both Kowalczyk and Bauer took the classic victories. It was an important race for many nations as this was the last chance to determine selection for the distance racers going to Vancouver in three weeks time.

Women

It’s a head scratcher how Kowalczyk is not tiring yet this season. She showed no signs of weakness of ill-affects of the Tour as she managed to grab another World Cup victory. Early on, Magdalena Pajala from Sweden was the pace setter and had a great race as the 21-year-old Swede ended up 17th. This was the first time she has actually made the points outside of the Tour de Ski. Bjørgen looked extremely strong today, especially going up the big hill at the 2.3km and 8.3km time check. It appeared that the Norwegian was going to take the win, but Kowalczyk managed to find enough to hold off Bjørgen as she had a strong second half and was closing in on the Tour de Ski winner in the last half of the race. It’s beyond me how Kowalczyk is not exhausted the crazy thing is that she is planning to race in Rybinsk and Canmore in the run up to the Olympics.

There some great analysis done by WorldofXC.com of todays women’s splits and a really interesting read.

Results
1. Justyna Kowalczyk
2. Marit Bjørgen
3. Aino-Kaisa Sarrinen

Notes: Ishida had another great race. This Japanese skier has a strong future and it’s good to see an Asian country have a skier able to be competitive in the field amongst the classical ski. Canada had a lone entrance in Daria Gaiazova who has dominated the Nor-Am circuit back home and had a very good race today finishing in 20th.

Men

Today showed how important home field advantage is to the Estonians. Both Veerpalu and Mae had seasonal best by both hitting the podium. Kokk and Rehemaa were 17th and 19th to out four Estonians in the top 20. However, they were denied by Bauer as he completed his Otepaa hat-trick. Other than Bauer, the top 11 places in todays race were dominated by three countries; two Estonians, five Russians, and three Norwegians. We saw new names to the leaderboard, particularly the Russians Artem Zhurko and Egor Sorin. Alexander Kuznetsov was the early leader but failed to keep the pace as you can read over at WorldofXC.com. Jaak Mae had a late charge in the last 2.7km and managed to move up from fifth to the bronze medal to deny any medals to Russia on the day.

Bauer makes it look so easy, it’s so fluid and smooth that it looks like he’s on a Sunday ski when in fact he’s destroying some of the most fit athletes on this planet. Veerpalu was the only one to be able to keep pace but due to his slower start, he was unable to pull all the time back to take the victory.

Results
1. Lukas Bauer
2. Andrus Veerpalu
3. Jaak Mae

Notes: Graham Nishikawa was Canada’s top skier today in 32nd and had a fast start to the day as he was in 10th at the 2.3km time check but failed to hold the pace. Martin Johansson had a great race as the Swede tied for 14th in todays race and held the leaders spot at the finish for a while before being taking over by Artem Zhmurko. Svartedal was the top Norwegian today in sixth and it’ll be interesting who will be going to Vancouver as part of the Norwegian team.

Sprint preview

Tomorrow sees the very exciting Otepää sprints take place. Jönsson is favourited to win (3.30) over Hattestad at (4.20) which is suprising. This years race will take place in the classic style. On the women’s side, Majdic is the favorite at 2.20 while Kowalczyk is at 2.80 and Bjørgen at 4.30.

We’ll see 16 seeded females in the field of 57. I’m quite excited to see how Hanna Falk gets on tomorrow, quite the fun skier to watch and with a slightly deeper field tomorrow there should be some interesting heats. The men’s field will be much strong than todays as there will be 19 seeded skiers in the 68 field. Predictions:

Women

1. Petra Majdic
2. Marit Bjørgen
3. Hanna Falk

Men
1. Ola Vigen Hattestad
2. Emil Jönsson
3. Jon Kristian Dahl

Til Tomorrow.

““Waiting to hear if you made the Olympic team is just like those threebr/
weeks from hell waiting for an STD blood test.””br/br/ – embr/ -via Stinson’s phone conversation with a skier very much in the mix./em

We had a topsy turvy sprint day at Rumford today. Warm temps yesterday and a light freeze last night led to tricky wax combinations. Things were pretty smooth for the J2 boys and the women, but they got interesting when the men raced. Preliminary results came out and everyone was convinced that they were wrong, but checks and double checks from the timers could not find any errors. The sun was beating down at the start of the mens race and the early skiers were skiing on sucky snow, then the clouds rolled in and the wind changed so things cooled off and the tracks got faster. Since the top guns are seeded early, it made for some very interesting results.divDuring the heats, things sorted themselves out and faster skiers and skiers with better wax did well./divdivMac Fisher had a great day and placed 3rd in both the prelim and the A final for J2 boys./divdivHeather Mooney led our girls by winning the open womens race. Megan K ’09 was 4th, Izzy C 6th, Gage F 7th and Rachel 9th to round off our top ten finishes./divdivFor the men. Skyler was a close second, right behind New Zealand Olympian, Ben Koons. Austin Cobb was 4th, Austin Caldwell 9th and Walker Bigelow 13th!/divdivIt was a good day for the team and we are looking forward to the skate races tomorrow./divdivAll results can be found on nensa.netbr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1I4RS6hsxI/AAAAAAAAB54/vZj7PmfqJNk/s1600-h/IMG_0121.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1I4RS6hsxI/AAAAAAAAB54/vZj7PmfqJNk/s400/IMG_0121.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427462370721116946″ //aAustin Caldwell had his best sprint day ever placing 9th overall.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1I37GlwV6I/AAAAAAAAB5w/UZNcaK_zSY4/s1600-h/IMG_0120.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1I37GlwV6I/AAAAAAAAB5w/UZNcaK_zSY4/s400/IMG_0120.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427461989455648674″ //aHeather won the prelim, cruised through the heats and won the final to take the overall Eastern Cup victory!br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1I3qUz9RlI/AAAAAAAAB5o/Rgzt2hs-YrM/s1600-h/IMG_1823.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1I3qUz9RlI/AAAAAAAAB5o/Rgzt2hs-YrM/s400/IMG_1823.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427461701215536722″ //aMac-daddy bringing home the hardware./divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-6944460860312808280?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div