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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: Anastasia Slonova

Ustiugov Superior in U23s 15k, Haga Secures First Gold for Norway

Sergey Ustiugov (RUS) en route to winning the men’s 15 k freestyle at U23 World Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic. Photo: Liberec2013.

The Russian men put on another demonstration of their astonishing strength and depth in Liberec, Czech Republic, on Thursday in the men’s 15 k freestyle individual start.

Sergey Ustiugov (RUS) stomped the field, leading from every checkpoint. He finished the course in 35:44.1, a commanding 19.7 seconds ahead of his teammate Evgeniy Belov (RUS). Thomas Bing (GER) completed the podium, trailing in 42.4 seconds after Ustiugov in a time of 36.26.5.

Ustiugov, a 20 year old wunderkind, was elated. “It is fantastic! I feel really wonderful. I achieved my goal: I was in first position for the whole race. I feel really happy.”

He is no stranger to the podium. Last year in Turkey the promising young Russian claimed 4 goal medals. He is a rising star in the Russian team building strength ahead of Sochi.

The men’s 15 k podium. 1. Sergey Ustiugov (RUS) 2. Evgeniy Belov (RUS) 3. Thomas Bing (GER). Photo: Liberec2013.

His teammate, Evgeniy Belov (RUS), improved upon his third place performance in the classic sprint to silver.

“I am really satisfied with the result of the race,” Belov said. “Today’s race was just training for the next month — I will start at the FIS Nordic World Ski in Val di Fiemme in Italy, so I did not expect the medal. That pleased me more.”

Belov started the first of the four 3.75 k loops conservatively in 6th position before accelerating to 2nd position. The 22 year old, who won a gold medal in last years 15 k classic race in Turkey, looks to be on good form leading to Val di Fiemme as he completes his final U23 Championships.

Thomas Bing used excellent pacing to earn his first U23 medal.

“I am incredibly happy,” He said. ” Today, it was a really tough race. I did not want to overvalue the start. I saved my energy for the end.”

Bing skied the first lap in second place before being overtaken by Belov. He would maintain his third place position into the finish.

Another notable result was Andrew Musgrave (GRB), whom finished agonizingly-close to a medal in fourth place in a time of 36:40.6, 56.5 seconds behind the Ustiugov.

Damien Tarantola (FRA) finished behind Musgrave in 5th position narrowly ahead of Fabio Clementi (ITA). Dmitriy Salnikov (RUS) made it 3 Russians in the top 8, finishing ahead of of Baptiste Gros (FRA) in 9th position. Mark Startostin (KAZ) rounded out the top 10.

15Km Freestyle Results

Ragnhild Haga (NOR) claiming Norway’s first gold medal of the week in the women’s 10 k freestyle at U23 World Championships. Photo: Liberec2013.

Ragnhild Haga (NOR) secured Norway’s first gold medal of the U23 championships in the 10km individual start in a time of 27:50.4

Haga overcame new fallen snow and frigid conditions to cross the line 29.5 seconds clear of second place Anastasia Slonova (KAZ).

“I am really satisfied,” Haga said. “Today, it was an exhausting race; I could not afford to relax. Two years ago I triumphed at the junior world championships so I am happy that I managed to pick up on this success.”

Haga, 21, improved upon her fifth place finish in the classic sprint to fulfill the promise shown in the 2011 U18 World Championships in Otepää, Finland, where she won a gold medal.

The women’s 10 k podium. 1. Ragnhild Haga (NOR) 2. Anastasia Slonova (KAZ) 3. Debora Agreiter (ITA). Photo: Liberec2013.

She began the first 3.3 k loop in fourth position before accelerating impressively into first by the next check point and widening her lead by nearly half a minute.

The second place finisher, Anastasia Slonova (KAZ), overcame a sluggish first lap in eighth position to overtake six skiers by the finish.

“I feel good after the race,” She said. “I am really pleased with the result. We watched the weather carefully, so we were able to prepare the skis well. It is a great achievement for us, indeed.”

Third place finisher Debora Agreiter (ITA) was a happy, if not subdued, bronze medal winner in a time of 28:20.3, just 0.4 seconds behind the surging Slonova (KAZ).

“I do not know what I lacked for being second placed. I guess I did not have enough strength at the end; after all, it was a difficult race. But I am still excited about the third place,” Agreiter said.

Her slight disappointment is justified given the astonishing final split of Slonova, who moved from fifth in the second intermediate split to overtake Agreiter, who had been holding steady in second position throughout the race.

Sandra Ringwald (GER) finished in fourth position, narrowly edged out by Agreiter. Fifth and Sixth positions were occupied by two Norwegians, Tuva Toftdahl Staver and Kari Oeyre Slind, respectively. A succession of Russians followed: Anna Nechaevskaya in seventh, Natalia Zhukova in eight, Ekaterina Khramtsova in 9th, and Elena Soboleva in 10th.

10km Freestyle Results

January 24, 2013
Signs Of Kazahk Greatness To Come?
I’m continuing to pick and choose which nations in Fasterskier’s countdown to write about. The US and Canada I’ll cover later in more detail, and I’m written about Japan a fair bit in the past.

A couple of comments in their write up about Kazahkstan stuck out to me. The first was the comment about Alexey Poltaranin being the next Vladimir Smirnov. (I realize their posts are written partly in fun, and not always entirely seriously.) This is hard for me to assess with data, since so much of Smirnov’s younger days took place prior to 1992. But here’s a rough comparison of their major international results by age, using standardized percent behind the median skier:

While that seems to suggest a smooth transition, keep the x axis scales in mind. There’s a 3 year gap there. Also, be careful about trends at the end points, since age can be split across two different seasons, as in Poltaranin’s case. One little exercise for you is this: carefully cover up Poltaranin’s one excellent race from last year (his best). How much is that one point influencing the visual impression of a steady improvement?

The other skier mentioned that caught my eye was Anastasia Slonova, who’s had some strong results as a junior. Although, I only have 29 FIS races on record for her including both sprint and distance events. She hasn’t had any stellar results yet in the handful of WC’s that she’s done, topping out at around 40th or so. But she is still quite young.

If you look at her cohort graph, that compares her FIS points to women who went on to record a top ten finish in a WC race, you see that she’s mostly on track in distance events:

So her distance FIS points are right in the middle of where you want to be if you’re aiming for WC success.

Related posts:
November 9, 2011
Signs Of Kazahk Greatness To Come?
I’m continuing to pick and choose which nations in Fasterskier’s countdown to write about. The US and Canada I’ll cover later in more detail, and I’m written about Japan a fair bit in the past.

A couple of comments in their write up about Kazahkstan stuck out to me. The first was the comment about Alexey Poltaranin being the next Vladimir Smirnov. (I realize their posts are written partly in fun, and not always entirely seriously.) This is hard for me to assess with data, since so much of Smirnov’s younger days took place prior to 1992. But here’s a rough comparison of their major international results by age, using standardized percent behind the median skier:

While that seems to suggest a smooth transition, keep the x axis scales in mind. There’s a 3 year gap there. Also, be careful about trends at the end points, since age can be split across two different seasons, as in Poltaranin’s case. One little exercise for you is this: carefully cover up Poltaranin’s one excellent race from last year (his best). How much is that one point influencing the visual impression of a steady improvement?

The other skier mentioned that caught my eye was Anastasia Slonova, who’s had some strong results as a junior. Although, I only have 29 FIS races on record for her including both sprint and distance events. She hasn’t had any stellar results yet in the handful of WC’s that she’s done, topping out at around 40th or so. But she is still quite young.

If you look at her cohort graph, that compares her FIS points to women who went on to record a top ten finish in a WC race, you see that she’s mostly on track in distance events:

So her distance FIS points are right in the middle of where you want to be if you’re aiming for WC success.

Related posts:
November 9, 2011
Signs Of Kazahk Greatness To Come?
I’m continuing to pick and choose which nations in Fasterskier’s countdown to write about. The US and Canada I’ll cover later in more detail, and I’m written about Japan a fair bit in the past.

A couple of comments in their write up about Kazahkstan stuck out to me. The first was the comment about Alexey Poltaranin being the next Vladimir Smirnov. (I realize their posts are written partly in fun, and not always entirely seriously.) This is hard for me to assess with data, since so much of Smirnov’s younger days took place prior to 1992. But here’s a rough comparison of their major international results by age, using standardized percent behind the median skier:

While that seems to suggest a smooth transition, keep the x axis scales in mind. There’s a 3 year gap there. Also, be careful about trends at the end points, since age can be split across two different seasons, as in Poltaranin’s case. One little exercise for you is this: carefully cover up Poltaranin’s one excellent race from last year (his best). How much is that one point influencing the visual impression of a steady improvement?

The other skier mentioned that caught my eye was Anastasia Slonova, who’s had some strong results as a junior. Although, I only have 29 FIS races on record for her including both sprint and distance events. She hasn’t had any stellar results yet in the handful of WC’s that she’s done, topping out at around 40th or so. But she is still quite young.

If you look at her cohort graph, that compares her FIS points to women who went on to record a top ten finish in a WC race, you see that she’s mostly on track in distance events:

So her distance FIS points are right in the middle of where you want to be if you’re aiming for WC success.

Related posts:
November 9, 2011
Team 14: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

2009-2010 Nations Cup Ranking: 13^th (1033 pts)

2010-2011 Nations Cup Ranking: 14^th (705 pts)

Men: 13^th (532 pts)

Women: 16^th (173 pts)

2011/2012 World Cup Team (Best Estimate)

Men

Alexey Poltoranin

Nikolai Chebotko

Sergey Cherepanov

Women

Yelena Kolomina

Svetlana Malakhova-Shishkina

What You May Have Missed Last Season

Kazakhstan took a 300 point nosedive in the overall points collection last year primarily due to a disastrous season of skiing by their female squad.

FasterSkier hates to pin it all on the women, but when neither Yelena Kolomina nor Svetlana Malakhova-Shishkina managed to record more than 50 points individually, and former strong sprinter Oxana Yatskaya laid an egg, failing to pick up a single point, we’ll call a spade a spade.

While the womens’ team disappointed in a big way, a lot of their slack was picked up by one man – Alexey Poltoranin.

Last year FasterSkier tipped ‘Polto’, as he is affectionately known around the office, as the man to watch. The young Kazakh did not disappoint, as bagging a silver medal in the sprint during the Kuusamo mini-tour, before falling to 15^th in the overall Tour standings.

The following weekend in Davos, Switzerland, he kicked down the distance skiing door, winning the first World Cup of his career, a 15 k classic race ahead of distance experts Lukas Bauer and Alexander Legkov.

He tripled his number of World Cups points from the previous season for the best total of his career, and finished 34^th overall. Is he the next Vladimir Smirnov? We here at FasterSkier aren’t willing to call it quite yet, but we’re convinced he has the skills to be pretty darn successful.

The Kazahks also hosted the little-known but apparently quite spectacular Asian Winter Games. While the fields were tiny compared to most ski races, it was due to a cap of two athletes per nation per race, rather than a pure lack of skiers.

What You Need To Know for This Season

The Kazakh men didn’t take on the Tour de Ski last winter, but in a year with no major Championships, if they choose to toe the line, there could be some big performances, especially from Poltoranin.

Polto showed last season that he has the skills to excel at Tour-style events, as his classic sprint speed is excellent, and he can distance ski with the best athletes on the World Cup – albeit only in classic.

If Poltoranin can cease to be a one-technique wonder, and get his skate legs under him (his skate results last year were 22^nd, 39^th, 64^th, and 61^st – ouch) then this season will cement him in his place among the weekly contenders for World Cup medals.

Smirnov was no slouch on skate skis, and wasn’t bad at the finish-line lunge either, although his lane tactics leave a little to be desired.

Who You Should Watch

Anastasia Slonova is a name worth keeping in the back of your mind. The 20 year-old ended her last year as a junior with some strong results, including sixth and fourth place finishes at World Junior Championships in Otepaa, Estonia. Oh, and just in case you’re looking down your nose at the sixth place, it came a scant five seconds ahead of highly touted American prospect Jessie Diggins in the 5 km freestyle.

November 5, 2011