2018 Davos, Switzerland women’s sprint podium. Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (center) placed first, Sophie Caldwell (left) of the U.S. was second, and Maja Dahlqvist (right) also of Sweden was third. (Photo: screenshot @matt.d.whitcomb)
FIS World Cup Davos, Switzerland 1.5 k Freestyle Sprint
On a lovely Davos, Switzerland day, Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. Ski Team (USST) was the day’s fastest qualifier for the women, stopping the clock in 2:46.28 minutes. Caldwell looked cool and in-form on her way to place second overall on the day for her first podium of the season.
The win went to Sweden’s Stina Nilsson after placing third (+2.03) in qualification. Third place went to another Swede, Maja Dahlqvist. It was the twenty-four-year-old Dahlqvist’s second podium of the year after she placed second in the Ruka, Finland classic sprint. Dahlqvist was the day’s second-fastest qualifier, finishing 0.62 seconds behind Caldwell.
Four other Amercian’s advanced to the heats. Sadie Bjornsen qualified in 10th (+4.28). She looked strong in her heat, leading the first lap and skiing in second place down the final stretch. She was passed by a surging Natalia Nepryaeva from Russia. After placing third, Bjornsen did not advance. Bjornsen ended up 14th on the day.
Ida Sargent (USST) qualified in 14th (+5.41) but did not advance out to the heats after placing fifth in the first quarterfinal. Sargent was 21st overall.
Jessie Diggins (USST) was 15th (+5.50) in qualification. In the fourth quarterfinal, Diggins tripped over Russian skier’s Natalia Matveeva’s pole and fell to her knees in the heat’s opening moments. She was unable to regain the lost ground and placed sixth in a photo finish with Matveeva. Diggins placed 26th overall.
No Canadians were entered in the women’s race.
Rosie Brennan (APU)qualified in 28th (+8.83) and was eventually eliminated in the third quarterfinal where she placed sixth. Brennan was 29th on the day. Also for the U.S., Kelsey Phinney (SMS T2) placed 38th, after placing 38th (+12.10) in the qualifier.
For the men, although still young twenty-two-years-old, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo looked like the old Klæbo on his way to his first World Cup win of the season. The Norwegian was the World Cup’s overall winner last season and first in the sprint cup.
Klæbo placed first in the qualifier with a time of 2:22.39 minutes. He advanced to the finals by winning the first heat and the first semi. Klæbo won the final in 2:20.44 minutes. Italy’s Federico Pellegrino was second overall, finishing 0.39 seconds back. Baptiste Gros of France was third (+1.40) to take the last podium step.
Simi Hamilton (USST) was the best placed North American male. Hamilton qualified in 17th (+4.76) and placed 12th overall. He placed second in the fifth heat a fraction behind Finland’s Joni Maeki. In the second semi-final, won by Norway’s Eirik Brandsdal, Hamilton placed sixth (+6.90).
Kevin Bolger (USST) just missed the heats after qualifying in 31st (+6.63). After not advancing, Bolger was 31st overall. No other Americans were entered.
Alex Harvey was the best placed Canadian, placing 37th overall. Lenny Valjas in his first World Cup of the season was 53rd. Andy Shields finished in 60th. No other Canadians were entered.
IBU World Cup Hochfilzen, Austria 10 k/12.5 k pursuit
On Saturday in Hochfilzen, Austria the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit was won by Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen in a time of 30:53.8 minutes. It was Mäkäräinen’s third win of the season. The Finn had a tough time on the shooting range, despite surging for the win in the final meters, she suffered three penalties on the shooting range (1+0+1+1).
Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland down the final stretch in Hochfilzen, Austria during the IBU World Cup 10k pursuit. Paulina Fialkova of Slovenia was second, Italy’s Dorothea Wierer was third. (Photo: biathlonworld.com)
Paulina Fialkova of Slovenia was second (+1.5, 0+0+1+1) after skiing two penalty loops. Italy’s Dorothea Wierer was third in a close fight for all three podium spots finishing 2.8 seconds behind Mäkäräinen. Wierer had three penalties during the race (2+0+1+1).
Susan Dunklee of the U.S. was the best placed North American, improving on her 34th start spot to place 28th (+2:06.1, 0+1+1+0). Teammate Joanne Reid was 31st (+2:17.1, 0+0+0+1) after missing only a single target. Clare Egan did not qualify for the pursuit.
Rosanna Crawford was the lone Canadian to qualify for Saturday’s pursuit. She placed 44th (+3:24.8, 1+1+0+1).
Martin Fourcade of France, in a return to shooting and skiing form, took the win in the men’s 12.5 k pursuit. Fourcade won in a time of 32:22.3 minutes while shooting clean through his four shooting rounds.
Germany’s Arnd Peiffer was second (+13.7, 1+0+0+0), skiing a single penalty lap. Norway’s Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen was third (+16.1) after shooting clean for the race.
First place starter after winning yesterday’s sprint, Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Bø, fell back in the standings after missing six targets. He placed ninth (+1:00.0, 0+3+1+2) overall.
Sean Doherty for the U.S. was 31st (+2:37.3, 0+1+0+1). U.S. teammate Leif Nordgren was 42nd (+3:21.5, 1+0+1+3).
Scott Gow was the only Canadian to qualify for the pursuit. He finished in 51st (+4:36.3, 1+0+0+3).
NorAm and U23/JW World Championships Qualification, Canmore, Alberta
Day two of the Noram and U23/JW trials in Canmore, Alberta, featured freestyle individual interval races; the men raced 15km followed by the women’s 10km
Russell Kennedy (Team R.A.D.), fresh back from Europe led the way with a 30:18.5 minute clocking for the 15km. His teammate Evan Palmer-Charrette was second, 30.7 seconds behind. Alexis Dumas (CNEPH) snatched third, 1.6 seconds behind Palmer-Charrette and 0.9 seconds ahead of Jack Carlyle (AWCA). Seb Boehmler-Dandurand (AWCA) was 4.3 seconds back from Carlyle and 48.5 seconds behind the winner.
Gareth Williams (CNST) was sixth and the top U23 athlete at 1:02.9 back, with CNEPH U23 teammates Philippe Boucher and Antoine Cyr taking 7th and 8th, 8.2 and 8.8 seconds behind Williams.
Samuel Hendry (Team R.A.D.) won the junior men’s 10km in 23:09.7 to earn a spot on the U23 team in Lahti next month, with his second NorAm interval start win in two tries. Remi Drolet (Black Jack) followed up two sprint NorAm sprint wins with a second place, 33.6 seconds behind. Tom Stephen (Team ULLR) was third at 45.8 seconds.
In the open women’s 10km free, Dahria Beatty (CNST) continued her hot streak with another win, finishing in 26:05.1. Last weekend’s winner, Katherine Stewart-Jones (CNST) was second at 35.0 seconds. Frédérique Vézina (CNEPH) took third, 1:01.9 behind.
Sadie White (TBay) was top U23 in 4th, 1:10 behind the winner.
All results, including live timing for the rest of the weekend.
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (1) winning Saturday’s women’s cross-country sprint final on the last day of the 2018 Blink Ski Festival in Sandnes, Norway. (Photo: Blink Ski Festival/Axelar/Arild Aarnes)
The 2018 Blink Ski Festival continued in full force on Friday and Saturday, with cross-country and biathlon prologues, 10- and 15-kilometer cross-country races and biathlon mass starts all taking place on Friday, followed by sprints on Saturday.
Elite racing began in the afternoon with the men’s prologue (no prologue was held for the women), Norway’s Gjøran Holstad Tefre posted the fastest time of 3:12.21. Finishing 1.89 seconds back was another Norwegian, Aleksander Dyrberg Ek, and Great Britain’s Andrew Young claimed the prologue’s final podium spot, finishing 2.27 seconds off the winning time.
Also in the top 10 were Norway’s Morten Eide Pedersen in fourth (+4.7), Britain’s James Clugnet in fifth (+4.76), France’s Lucas Chanavat in sixth (+5.09), Norway’s Stian Grastveit in seventh (+5.70), France’s Renaud Jay in eighth (+5.75), and Norway’s Sindre Folkvord and Harald Østberg Amundsen in ninth (+6.00) and 10th (+6.03), respectively.
Canada’s Evan Palmer-Charrette finished 34th (+16.68), Scott Hill placed 39th (+19.37) and Bob Thompson was 40th (+19.54) out of 47 finishers.
After the elite men’s prologue, athletes geared up for a men’s and women’s biathlon prologues.
Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø took the men’s biathlon prologue win in a time of 10:30.2 after two misses (1+1). One second back, it was a tie for second place between another Norwegian, Lars Aasheim Svaland, who had one penalty (0+1), and France’s Antonin Guigonnat, with one miss as well (1+0).
Slovenia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina, who took one gold and two silver medals at the 2018 Olympics, won Friday’s women’s prologue with clean shooting and a time of 11:34.6. Just 0.6 seconds behind was Norway’s Emilie Ågheim Kalkenberg, who placed second with perfect 10-for-10 shooting as well. France’s Justine Braisaz claimed third, 10.7 seconds out of first, after missing two targets (0+2).
The next event on Friday’s program was the women’s 10 k cross-country mass start, which Norwegian sprint specialist Maiken Caspersen Falla won in 20:39.4. She bested fellow Norwegian Mari Eide by 1.9 seconds, and Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla and Norway’s Kari Øyre Slind followed in third (+3.9) and fourth (+3.9), respectively, with the same time.
Working their way into the top 10 were Russia’s Elena Soboleva in fifth (+4.9), Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski in sixth (+5.0), Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and Ragnhild Haga in seventh (+5.1) and eighth (+5.2), respectively, Austria’s Teresa Stadlober in ninth (+6.6), and Russia’s Natalia Matveeva in 10th (+8.7). Out of 31 women, Nichole Bathe, racing for Great Britain, finished in 23rd (+1:09).
Sweden’s Hanna Öberg (front) racing to first in the women’s biathlon mass start on Friday the 2018 Blink Ski Festival in Sandnes, Norway. (Screenshot: NRK broadcast)
Friday’s program then moved on to the women’s biathlon mass start. Sweden’s Hanna Öberg won the event in a time of 13:19.4 despite three misses (0+1+2+0). Kuzmina finished second, crossing 2.1 seconds behind the Swede after a penalty in each stage (1+1+1+1). Third place went to another Swede, Mona Brorsson, who crossed 5.9 seconds after Öberg and shot four penalties (2+1+1+0).
Norway’s Henrik L’abeé-Lund (r) winning the men’s biathlon mass start on Friday at the 2018 Blink rollerski festival, ahead of his teammate Johannes Thingnes Bø in second in Sandnes, Norway. (Screenshot: NRK broadcast)
Following the women’s biathlon race, the men’s biathlon mass start got underway. Norway’s Henrik L’abeé-Lund emerged as the winner, crossing the line in 17:21.3 after shooting four penalties (1+1+2+0). Exactly three seconds behind him was J.T. Bø in second place with two misses (1+0+1+0). Sealing the all-Norwegian podium was Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, who missed six targets (1+1+2+2) and finished 12.1 seconds after L’abeé-Lund for third.
Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov leading the pack of the elite men’s 15-kilometer freestyle cross-country mass start on Friday at the 2018 Blink Ski Festival in Sandnes, Norway. (Screenshot: NRK broadcast)
Friday’s final race turned back to cross-country for the elite men’s 15 k freestyle mass start. Russian skier, Sergey Ustiugov, who was banned from competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics, won it in 29:26.0, 2.1 seconds ahead of Norway’s Aleksander Ek, (who had placed second in the prologue to start the day). Italy’s Federico Pellegrino was just another 0.6 seconds back in third (+2.7).
“I was a little nervous today because I won it last year and I wanted to repeat my success here again today,” Ustiugov told NRK through a translator. “It didn’t go easy, but I did manage to do what I wanted to do, and I would like to thank all my team, Markus [Cramer], and the rest of the team. That was great.”
The remaining top ten included Norway’s Vebjørn Turtveit in fourth (+2.9), Sindre Bjørnestad Skar in fifth (+3.9), Øystein Pettersen in sixth (+5.4), and Torstein Bu in seventh (+5.8). France’s Adrien Backscheider and Clement Parisse placed eighth (+5.9) and ninth (+6.2) respectively, followed by Norway’s Eirik Brandsdal in tenth (+6.2).
Racing for Canada, Alex Harvey finished 14th (+7.5).
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla winning the women’s cross-country sprint on Saturday at the Blink Ski Festival in Sandnes, Norway. It was her second-straight victory after topping Friday’s 10 k freestyle mass start as well. (Screenshot: NRK broadcast)
Saturday marked the final day of the Blink rollerski festival and included cross-country and biathlon sprints. In the women’s cross-country final, Norway’s Falla picked up her second-straight win, ahead of Russia’s Matveeva in second (+1.6) and Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter in third (+2.4). Norway’s Eide was just off the podium in fourth (+2.9), Norway’s Barbro Kvåle Trømborg placed fifth (+3.7), and another Norwegian, Linn Ravndal, finished 8 seconds back in sixth.
Falla’s won the final in 3:40.8 after topping her quarterfinal and semifinal as well.
The men’s cross-country racing began with a prologue, which Norway’s Vetle Christiansen won in 1:31.92, just three-hundredths of a second ahead of his fellow countryman, Ek. France’s Baptiste Noel placed third in the prologue, 1.76 seconds out of first.
Russia’s Gleb Retivykh (second from r) winning the men’s cross-country sprint final on Saturday at the Blink Ski Festival in Sandnes, Norway. (Screenshot: NRK broadcast)
In the heats later in the day, Russia’s Gleb Retivykh came out on top of the final, getting there by placing second in both his quarterfinal and semifinal, then winning the last round by 0.2 seconds over Pellegrino in a time of 3:15.5. Pellegrino had won his quarterfinal but advanced as a lucky loser in fourth out of the second semifinal. The 25-year-old Ek capped off his successful series with another podium, placing third in the final, just 0.3 seconds out of first.
In a post-race interview with NRK, Retivykh explained this was his first time at Blink.
“I am very happy,” he said in English. “Today is my first win at Blink, and [it was my] first time here.”
In a close final, Norway’s Gjøran Tefre and Brandsdal followed in fourth (+0.5) and fifth (+0.7), respectively, Italy’s Francesco De Fabiani was just behind in sixth (+0.8).
France’s Justine Braisaz celebrating across the line as she wins the women’s biathlon super sprint on the last day of 2018 Blink Ski Festival on Saturday in Sandnes, Norway. (Screenshot: NRK broadcast)
Biathletes were able to experience head-to-head sprint racing as well (a deviation from the typical biathlon World Cup sprint format, which is individual), in the women’s and men’s biathlon supersprints, which included one prone and one standing shooting stage per heat.
France’s Braisaz won the women’s final in 7:45.3. She had previously won her quarterfinal (which was a longer distance), then placed seventh in the first semifinal (same distance as final). Norway’s Marte Olsbu placed second in the final (+0.4), and Sweden’s Brorsson returned to the podium in third (+0.9).
“It was really close at the end, but I am very happy about the weekend here,” Braisaz told NRK on English after. “Everything is perfect, even though the weather is a little bit — how do you say — moody. But it’s OK. And I am really happy to be in Norway and I will make my stay longer after the festival weekend.”
Norway’s Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen winning the men’s biathlon supersprint on Saturday, the last day of the Blink Ski Festival, in Sandnes, Norway. (Screenshot: NRK broadcast)
In the men’s biathlon super sprint, Norway’s Christiansen dominated the day, winning his quarterfinal and semifinal before beating J.T.Bø by 2.2 seconds in the men’s final with a time of 12:01.8. France’s Guigonnat completed the podium in third, 8.5 seconds behind Christiansen.
The silver-medal winning Russian men’s relay team at the 2014 Olympics. Alexander Bessmertnykh, Maxim Vyegzhanin, and Alexander Legkov were disqualified for doping, but just had their bans overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned doping bans assigned to eight cross-country skiers based on investigations into manipulation of the anti-doping process at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“In 28 cases, the evidence collected was found to be insufficient to establish that an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) was committed by the athletes concerned,” CAS wrote in a press release. “With respect to these 28 athletes, the appeals are upheld, the sanctions annulled and their individual results achieved in Sochi 2014 are reinstated.”
The athletes whose results will be reinstated are:
50 k gold medalist and relay silver medalist Alexander Legkov
50 k silver medalist, team sprint and relay silver medalist Maxim Vylegzhanin, also fourth in the 30 k skiathlon
relay silver medalist Alexander Bessmertnykh, also seventh in the 15 k classic
Evgeny Belov, 19th in the 30 k skiathlon and 25th in the 15 k classic
team sprint silver medalist Nikita Kriukov, also 13th in the men’s sprint
Alexei Petukhov, eighth in the men’s sprint
Evgenia Shapovalova, 28th in the women’s sprint
Natalia Matveeva, 20th in the women’s sprint
The disqualifications of skiers Julia Ivanova, Yulia Tchekaleva, and Anastasia Dotsenko were upheld, although CAS held that instead of being banned from the Olympics for life, the three women were merely banned from the 2018 Games.
The cases of biathletes Olga Zaitseva, Olga Vilukhina, and Yana Romanova have not yet been handled.
The eight athletes whose disqualifications were overturned had not been invited to the 2018 Olympics, and many other Russian athletes who had not been convicted of doping offenses also did not meet the IOC’s requirements of proof of being clean either. Thus, it is doubtful whether the CAS appeals will affect the Olympic rosters.
CAS did not release any information about how the arbitration panel came to its decision.
“Although the operative part of the decision is issued, the principle of confidentiality of the procedure still applies,” Legkov’s lawyer, Christof Wieschemann, wrote in a statement emailed to the media. “I assume that all parties involved will respect this. The panel has to decide in its judgment what details of the proceedings becomes subject of the reasoning of the decision and therefore will also become public. We will wait for the reasoned decisions.”
The evidence in the McLaren report showed, for instance, that anti-doping sample bottles belonging to Legkov, Vylegzhanin, Shapovalova, and Petukhov, among others, showed marks consistent with having been tampered with. A sample belonging to Vylegzhanin also showed discrepancies in the reported specific gravity.
There was no explanation offered as to why this evidence is not valid in proving an anti-doping rule violation.
Likewise, CAS offered no explanation as to why this testimony was not sufficient to prove an anti-doping rule violation.
“Dr. Rodchenkov testified fully and credibly at CAS,” Rodchenkov’s lawyer, Jim Walden, wrote in a statement. “His truth has been verified by forensic evidence, other whistleblowers, and, more recently, recovery of the Moscow lab’s secret database, showing thousands of dirty tests that were covered up. The panel’s unfortunate decision provides a very small measure of punishment for some athletes but a complete ‘get out of jail free’ card for most. Thus, the CAS decision only emboldens cheaters, makes it harder for clean athletes to win, and provides yet another ill-gotten gain for the corrupt Russian doping system generally, and Putin specifically.”
The photo finish for first in the men’s skate sprint final on Saturday at the NorAm in Rossland, B.C., with Julien Locke (near) outstretching Evan Palmer-Charette for first, and Julian Smith (r) taking third third ahead of Bob Thompson (yellow NorAm leader’s bib). (Photo: CCC/Twitter)
NorAm Mini Tour (Rossland, B.C.): Freestyle sprints
On Day 2 of NorAm racing in Rossland, British Columbia, Julien Locke, of the Black Jack Ski Club and Canadian National U25 Team, won the men’s 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint final on his home trails by just one-hundredth of a second over Evan Palmer-Charrette, of the National Team Development Centre (NTDC) Thunder Bay, in 2:38.13. NTDC Thunder Bay had two on the podium with Julian Smith in third, 0.4 seconds behind Locke.
Locke started the day by qualifying second, just 0.06 seconds behind Bob Thompson (NTDC Thunder Bay), who won the qualifier in 2:39.49. Locke went on to finish second to Thompson in the first quarterfinal, then won the second semifinal while Thompson won the first semi.
In the final, Locke tallied his first NorAm win of the season, while Thompson, last weekend’s classic-sprint winner at Sovereign Lake, placed fourth (+0.43), missing the podium by three-hundredths of a second. Andy Shields (Lappe Nordic) finished fifth (+1.78) and Sebastien Boehmler-Dandurand (Canmore Nordic/Stefan Kuhn HP Team) sixth (+5.21) in the men’s final.
Also on Saturday, American Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg/Loppet Nordic Racing) racked up her second-straight win in Rossland (after topping Friday’s 5 k classic), winning the women’s 1.4 k skate-sprint final in 3:03.36. Canada’s Andrea Dupont (Rocky Mountain Racers) finished 2.5 seconds later for second place and Zina Kocher (Foothills Nordic) scored her first podium of the season in third (+3.53).
Dupont won the women’s qualifier in 3:07.68, and Gregg qualified second, 0.87 seconds back. Dupont went on to win the first quarterfinal and first semifinal, while Gregg won her quarterfinal and semifinal as well. (Gregg’s quarterfinal had four racers, compared to five in Dupont’s quarterfinal, as only 21 women competed in the senior women’s heats.)
Also in the final, Laura Leclair, of the Centre National d’Excellence Pierre Harvey/Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre (CNEPH), finished fourth (+6.11), Maya MacIsaac-Jones (U25 Team) was fifth (+6.31) and Sophie Carrier-Laforte (Skinouk) sixth (+8.57).
On the second day of Alpen Cup (a.k.a. OPA Cup) racing in St. Ulrich, Ida Sargent of the U.S. Ski Team (USST) finished third in the women’s 5 k classic behind two Russians, Elena Soboleva and Natalia Matveeva, respectively.
Soboleva took the win in the individual-start race in 14:25.8, and Matveeva was 12.5 seconds back for second place. Just like Matveeva, Sargent reached the podium for the second-straight race in third (+18.1), after placing third in the freestyle sprint on Friday (Matveeva finished second in the sprint).
Germany’s Antonia Fräbel finished fourth (+21.0) and American Sophie Caldwell (USST), who won the sprint the day before, placed fifth (+22.7). The other USST member in the race, Julia Kern finished 15th (+53.5).
The men raced a 15 k classic, with France’s Alexis Jeannerod taking the win in 38:45.6. Germany’s Thomas Wick was 4.7 seconds back in second, and Russia’s Gleb Retivykh placed third (+11.3). The lone American man racing, Andy Newell (USST) finished 36th (+2:07.1) out of 125 finishers.
The three-day OPA Cup weekend in St. Ulrich wraps up Sunday with 10/15 k freestyle mass starts.
IBU World Cup (Annecy, France): Women’s and men’s pursuits
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) after placing sixth and reaching the flower ceremony in the women’s 10 k pursuit at the IBU World Cup on Saturday in Annecy, France. After starting 10th, sixth stands as a season-best for Dunklee. (Photo: Glen Crawford)
Germany’s Laura Dalhmeier captured her first win of the season, preventing Slovakia’s Anastasia Kuzmina from her third-straight win, and American Susan Dunklee raced to a season-best sixth in the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit on Saturday in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand, France.
Canada’s Emma Lunder achieved a career-best 18th after starting 34th, and her teammate Julia Ransom placed 27th after starting 39th.
In the men’s 12.5 k pursuit that followed, Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø started first, shot clean and fended off his competition to rack up his fourth-straight victory — winning by more than a minute.
And for the second-straight race, France’s Martin Fourcade finished second, this time 1:01.4 minutes behind Bø, who crossed the line first in 32:52.1. Fourcade had to ski two penalty laps later in the race (0+0+1+1), while Russia’s Anton Shipulin, who started sixth and had a single miss (0+0+0+1), rose to third place (+1:10.5).
American Lowell Bailey shot clean to race up to 14th (+2:13.9) after starting 35th. His US Biathlon teammate Tim Burke finished 26th (+3:03.1) with three penalties (1+0+1+1), after starting 10th.
Canada’s Scott Gow finished a second later for 27th (+3:04.1) after starting 16th and skiing four penalty laps (1+0+1+2). His brother Christian Gow moved up one spot to 29th (+3:06.6) after starting 30th and shooting 19-for-20 (1+0+0+0).
The U.S. had four men in the pursuit, with Sean Doherty placing 30th (+3:07.0) with three penalties after starting 17th.
Leif Nordgren improved to 48th (+4:54.9), up from 56th, despite three misses.
***
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Toblach, Italy): 10/15 k freestyle
The men’s 15 k freestyle podium at the Toblach World Cup in Italy, with Norway’s Simen Hegstad Krüger (c) scoring his first World Cup victory in first place, last weekend’s winner Maurice Manificat (l) of France in second, and Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
In the men’s 15 k freestyle on Saturday in Toblach, 24-year-old Simen Hegstad Krüger achieved his first individual World Cup victory in 29:58.8 minutes, and was joined on the podium by France’s Maurice Manificat in second (+10.6) and Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave in third (+11.5).
Canadian World Cup Team member Alex Harvey missed the podium by 2.5 seconds in fourth place (+14.0), tying his best result of the season after finishing Ruka Triple mini tour in fourth place late last month in Kuusamo, Finland.
Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov followed in fifth, Norway’s Finn Hågen Krogh was sixth and Hans Christer Holund seventh, Finland’s Matti Heikkinen eighth, Switzerland’s Toni Livers ninth, and notably, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo — who hasn’t lost a race all season (he sat out last weekend’s 15 k skate in Davos, Switzerland) — was 10th.
Erik Bjornsen of the U.S. Ski Team (USST) was the lone American in the points (top 30) in 29th (+1:09.6), Noah Hoffman finished 40th (+1:24.5), Scott Patterson (USST) was 42nd (+1:29.4), and Paddy Caldwell (USST) 53rd (+1:50.0)
For Canada, Devon Kershaw (World Cup Team) placed 38th (+1:22.1), Graeme Killick (World Cup Team) was 49th (+1:47.8), Russell Kennedy (Team R.A.D.) 60th (+2:13.2), and Knute Johnsgaard (World Cup Team) 85th (+3:28.3).
The women’s 10 k freestyle podium on Saturday at the World Cup in Toblach, Italy, with Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla (c) in first, and Norway’s Ragnhild Haga (l) and Heidi Weng (r) in second and third, respectively. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
In the women’s 10 k freestyle individual start in Toblach, Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla tallied her third win of the season in 22:40.1 minutes, ahead of five Norwegians and American Jessie Diggins.
Norway’s Ragnhild Haga was 5.8 seconds shy of Kalla’s time for second place, and her teammate Heidi Weng was another 8 seconds back in third (+13.8).
Norway occupied second through sixth place, with Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen in fourth (+17.9), Marit Bjørgen in fifth (+22.6) and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg in sixth (+29.3). Diggins led the U.S. Ski Team (USST) in seventh (+40.5), with Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen close behind in eighth (+43.5) and the second U.S. woman in the top 10, Sadie Bjornsen, another 0.4 seconds back in ninth (+43.9).
The USST had three in the top 20 with Rosie Brennan placing 19th (+1:15.2) for her second-straight top-20 result (following a 17th place in last weekend’s 10 k freestyle in Davos, Switzerland). Chelsea Holmes (Alaska Pacific University) finished 36th and Liz Stephen (USST) was 47th.
Emily Nishikawa (Canadian World Cup Team) led her team in 51st, Cendrine Browne (Canadian U25 Team) followed in 55th, Dahria Beatty (World Cup Team) was 69th, and Katherine Stewart-Jones (U25 Team) 77th.
Tim Burke (US Biathlon) racing to 10th in the men’s 10 k sprint at the IBU World Cup on Friday in Annecy, France. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus)
IBU World Cup (Annecy, France): Men’s 10 k sprint
(Note: This rundown has been updated to include quotes from US Biathlon’s Tim Burke and Sean Doherty.)
Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø racked up his third-straight individual win of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup season on Friday (and fourth non-relay win of 2017/2018), topping the men’s 10-kilometer sprint in Annecy, France. And he did so in head-turning fashion, beating French superstar Martin Fourcade, the race’s runner-up, by 21.1 seconds on Fourcade’s home turf.
Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø racing to his third-straight win of the season on Friday in the IBU World Cup men’s sprint in Annecy, France. (Photo: IBU/biathlonworld)
On a pristine day in Annecy, Bø started 24th and consistently clocked the fastest times throughout the race. He cleaned prone, then standing, and finished 41.8 seconds faster than Germany’s Simon Schempp, the race leader until that point who also shot clean (0+0).
Fourcade started 31st and shot a flawless 10-for-10 as well, yet trailed Bø from start to finish. After prone, Fourcade was 8.3 seconds back in second. After standing, he was 14.7 seconds out of first with one loop to go. Bø skied the fastest course time on every loop to remain out of reach, and also shot faster than Fourcade, who clocked the second-fastest overall course time.
Ultimately, the 24-year-old Bø crossed the finish line with the fastest time of 22:16.9 minutes, Fourcade was second and France’s 26-year-old Antonin Guigonnat achieved his first World Cup podium in third (+34.7) with clean shooting. In fact, the top-four finishers all shot clean, with Schempp in fourth and the third Frenchman in the top five, Simon Desthieux in fifth (+45.7).
Guigonnat’s previous best World Cup result was 24th in a 20 k individual in 2015 in Oslo, Norway.
France’s Antonin Guigonnat placed third in Friday’s IBU World Cup men’s 10 k sprint for his first podium and first top 20 of his World Cup career. (Photo: Glen Crawford)
“It seems unreal to be here besides two monsters like these guys,” Guigonnat told the IBU, according to a press release. “After standing I was informed I had 7 seconds on Schempp and at that moment I trusted myself to hold that gap. I always trust in myself to be able to do something great like today.”
Fourcade, who has either placed second or third behind Bø in three consecutive races, was not excited about second place.
“Never cool, because I expected to win,” Fourcade said in an English interview with German broadcaster ZDF. “… But when you find someone better you just have to congratulate him and wait for the next chance. For now, with zero mistakes Johannes is not beatable. I will take the Christmas break to work on my shape, and expect to have a better shape in January to try and challenge him, because for now in the three last competitions I didn’t challenge him enough. I want to be faster, but he is good, he is really good.”
“That’s good words from the World Cup leader,” Bø replied to ZDF in English. “… Every victory I had this season Martin has been right behind me, so I just have to continue being at 100 percent. I always have to think about myself, and then afterwards we will see if I am in front or second, but it has been a good start.”
Only one man in the top 11 didn’t shoot clean: Russia’s Anton Shipulin in sixth (+54.9), who missed one in prone (1+0), but made up for it with the sixth-fastest overall course time and fifth-fastest overall shooting time.
US Biathlon’s Tim Burke achieved his first top 10 in two seasons, placing 10th, 1:08.2 behind Bø with clean shooting.
“I feel like I executed the perfect race for the shape I am in right now,” Burke wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “I know I am not in top form right now so this was about the best I could do considering that.
“I have worked a ton on my shooting in the past year and I know that I’ve reached a higher level in training than ever before. It was nice to be able to show some of those improvements today,” he continued. “It feels great to be back in the top ten. Last season I was only racing in about half of the races and I had a top finish of 11th. But I have to say that I am more pleased with how I executed the race today than the actual result.”
In a US Biathlon press release, Burke noted that “perfect shooting conditions and a fast track” made for a tight race, as he had expected. “This was a good confidence boost for me heading into the holiday break,” he said.
Sean Doherty (US Biathlon) racing to 17th for the second-straight individual IBU World Cup race on Friday in the men’s 10 k sprint in Annecy, France. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus)
“I feel I executed a great race plan today,” Doherty wrote in an email. “The sprint is all attack right from the start, and this aggressive racing demands that you are on every transition from the first 100 meters. I carried this mentality through the range and the last lap.”
After starting in bib 7 and cleaning the first shooting stage, Doherty took the race lead by 22 seconds.
“Prone was solid and I was happy to execute my plan on the range, had no idea I was leading, just keep the pedal down for another lap,” he wrote. “Being an early bib you can’t look too hard at the place number on the split times. … Coming into standing I just reminded myself of the same focus points I have been working on since May. Focusing on those fundamentals really helps block out any extraneous thoughts that might want to sneak into your mind.”
Scott Gow (Biathlon Canada) after placing 16th in the IBU World Cup men’s sprint on Friday in Annecy, France. (Photo: Glen Crawford)
Biathlon Canada’s Scott Gow notched his second top 16 of the season to put himself at the top of the list for Olympic team selection, based on Biathlon Canada’s “Priority 2” criteria. Gow started near the back of the field in bib 99 and ended up 16th (+1:13.5) with clean shooting.
“I’m very happy with another top 16,” Gow wrote in an email. “This result has solidified my priority 2 Olympic criteria which is a big relief. I’m also happy with my performances so far this early in the season. I’m normally a slow starter so it’s a good sign that I’m hitting good results before Christmas. I just hope I can make it last…”
“Conditions were rock solid today,” Gow explained. “The fresh snow we got overnight mixed with the wet snow and created a very hard glaze. It was hard to hold a solid edge and the downhills were squirrelly. There was zero wind all day today, so range conditions were perfect.”
His younger brother Christian Gow tallied Canada’s second-result in 30th (+1:44.2), also with clean shooting. He was one of 19 men (out of 103 finishers) that hit every target on Friday.
A total of four Americans qualified for Saturday’s pursuit, with Lowell Bailey placing 35th (+1:49.5) with a prone penalty (1+0), and Leif Nordgren finishing 56th (+2:18.1) with one prone miss as well (1+0). Paul Schommer placed 85th (+3:19.3) to miss the top 60 required for the pursuit.
“… It was a strong Nations Cup points day for the team as a whole,” Doherty noted.
Canada’s Brendan Green and Nathan Smith did not qualify for the pursuit, after Green finished 86th (+3:21.0) with five penalties (3+2) and Smith was 91st (+3:36.4) with two misses (0+2).
The women’s and men’s pursuits will be held Saturday in Annecy, with the women’s 10 k race starting at 5:45 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) and the men’s 12.5 k at 8:45 a.m. EST.
“It’s always chaotic with a lot of action during pursuits and I’ll try to filter all of that out,” Scott Gow wrote. “As for skiing, there’s a lot of transition areas where I think a lot of time can be made.”
The women’s 1.2 k freestyle sprint podium at Friday’s Alpen Cup in St. Ulrich, Austria, with two U.S. Ski Team members in the top three: Sophie Caldwell (c) in first, Ida Sargent (r) in third, and Russia’s Natalia Matveeva (l) in second. (Photo: Sophie Caldwell/Instagram)
With this weekend’s World Cup races in Toblach, Italy, being solely distance events, five U.S. Ski Team (USST) sprinters ventured to St. Ulrich, Austria, to compete in the Alpen Cup (also known as OPA Cup) skate sprints on Friday.
Longtime couple Sophie Caldwell and Simi Hamilton came away with wins, with Caldwell winning the women’s 1.2 k freestyle sprint final ahead of Russia’s Natalia Matveeva in second and Caldwell’s USST teammate Ida Sargent in third. Another World Cup regular, Switzerland’s Laurien van der Graaff placed fourth, while Germany’s U23 World Championships classic sprint silver medalist Antonia Fräbel finished fifth. Italy’s Greta Laurent was sixth, Germany’s Hanna Kolb seventh, Austria’s Lisa Unterweger eighth, and Julia Kern (USST) ninth.
In the men’s 1.4 k, Hamilton took the win in a photo finish, just ahead of USST teammate Andy Newell in second and Switzerland’s Gianluca Cologna in third. France’s Jean Tiberghien placed fourth and Russia’s Gleb Retivykh finished fifth.
“#OPA men’s sprint was a nail-biter,” U.S. Ski Team Women’s Coach Matt Whitcomb wrote on Instagram with a finish-line photo on Friday. “Super close race for @simihamilton, @andynewellskier and @gianlucacologna. Well-run race by the OC in St Ulrich…
Earlier in the day, Caldwell won the qualifier by 2.82 seconds over Matveeva with a top time of 2:27.85. Sargent qualified sixth, 4.6 seconds behind Caldwell, and Kern qualified ninth (+5.54). Canadian-born Swiss skier Heidi Widmer qualified 11th (+6.66) and went on to place 14th overall.
In the men’s qualifier, Newell clocked the fastest time in 2:47.93. Retivykh was 2.01 seconds back in second, and Hamilton qualified third (+3.26).
Two more days of OPA Cup racing remain in St. Ulrich, with the 5/15 k classic individual starts on Saturday and 10/15 k freestyle pursuits on Sunday, according to the International Ski Federation (FIS) events calendar.
NorAm Mini Tour (Rossland, B.C.): Classic Interval Start)
The NorAm men’s 10 k classic podium on Friday in Rossland, B.C., with Brian Gregg (Team Gregg/Loppet Nordic Racing) in first, Scott Hill (r) of BXC in second and Bob Thompson (l) of NTDC Thunder Bay in third. (Photo: Kai Symington-Kruss)
The NorAm series continued this weekend with the Black Jack Ski Club hosting the first Canadian mini-tour of the season.
Racing started Friday with classic interval start races, with 10 kilometres and two laps for the men, and 5 k and one lap for the women.
Brian Gregg, representing Loppet Nordic Racing (LNR) and Team Gregg, dominated in 29:34.0 minutes, for his second win of the season after topping the 15 k classic mass start in West Yellowstone. Team BXC’s Scott Hill followed 28.2 seconds back in second. Last weekend’s sprint winnerBob Thompson, of the National Team Development Centre (NTDC) Thunder Bay, notched his second podium of the season in third (+39.4).
Fresh off the World Cup, Canadian national team sprinters Jess Cockney (World Cup Team) and Julien Locke (U25 Team) finished seventh and 13th, respectively.
Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg/Loppet Nordic Racing) on her way to a win in the NorAm women’s 5 k classic on Friday in Rossland, B.C. (Photo: Mark Richards)
It was a big day for Team Gregg with Brian’s wife Caitlin Gregg winning the women’s 5 k in 16:08.0. Annika Hicks, of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA), finished 46.8 seconds back in second, while Sophie Carrier-Laforte of the Centre National d’Excellence Pierre Harvey/Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre (CNEPH) narrowly edged out a group of women to take third (+1:16.1).
The Rossland NorAm continues with freestyle sprints on Saturday, followed by 10/15 k freestyle pursuits on Sunday.
Sophie Carrier-Laforte charging the downhill on her way to third place in the NorAm women’s 5 k classic on Friday in Rossland, B.C. (Photo: Mark Richards)
Russia’s Natalia Matveeva (l) winning a World Cup sprint in January, 2017. Matveeva was sanctioned for using EPO in 2009, but has returned to competition; a provision in an IOC decision would bar her from competing in the 2018 Olympics, but is almost guaranteed to be struck down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)
Yesterday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that while Russian athletes who are “considered clean” may compete at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, they will do so in neutral uniforms and under the moniker “Olympic Athlete from Russia” rather than as the Russian Olympic Team. The Russian national anthem wouldn’t be played if they win, although the team may be reinstated for the closing ceremonies.
That is a big step for the international sporting community in their task of dealing with Russia’s manipulation of the anti-doping system at the 2014 Olympics.
But significant as it may be, the drama is far from over as several more decisions must be taken. Individual athletes disqualified from the Olympics by an IOC Disciplinary Panel are appealing their bans to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), sport’s supreme court. Several of the provisions in the IOC’s Tuesday decision are also certain to be appealed to CAS, among them the assertion that no Russian athlete with a previous doping ban can compete in the 2018 Games.
Decisions must also be taken by individual international sports federations, like the International Ski Federation (FIS) and the International Biathlon Union (IBU). Russia has broken enough statutes of these federations that they may be suspended, which could have its own effects on the competitive field at the World Cup, the Olympics, and lower levels of competition.
And finally, there allegedly hundreds to thousands of doping cases indicated in digital forensic evidence from the Russia investigation which have not been dealt with yet because they do not involve athletes from the 2014 Olympics.
Sport Federation Statutes and Suspensions
The Russians celebrate a silver medal in the men’s 4 x 10 k cross-country skiing relay at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. After the disqualification of Alexander Legkov and Maxim Vylegzhanin, the team has been ordered to return the medals.
The 2014 FIS Anti-Doping Rules, which went into effect on January 1, 2014 (before the Olympics started that February), state that the federation can take action against national ski teams, such as barring athletes from competition or assessing fines, if there is evidence of extensive doping within the team.
Article 12.3.1 of the rules state that such action may be taken when “Four or more violations of these Anti-Doping Rules… are committed by Athletes or other Persons affiliated with a National Ski Association within a 12-month period in testing conducted by FIS or Anti-Doping Organisations…”
At the moment, eight Russian cross-country skiers have been disqualified by the International Olympic Committee for doping violations at the 2014 Olympics: Alexander Legkov, Evgeny Belov, Alexei Petukhov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Julia Ivanova, Evgenia Shapovalova, Anastasia Dotsenko, and Julia Tchekaleva.
“In such event FIS may in its discretion elect to: (a) withdraw some or all FIS membership rights, including participation in all FIS calendar competitions, voting rights at the FIS Congress, ban all officials from that National Ski Association for participation in any FIS activities for a period of up to two years and/or (b) cancellation of the organisation of future FIS events in the disciplines concerned and/or (c) withdraw some or all FIS funding to the National Ski Association…” the rules state.
A second provision states that if four more cases are found within a 12-month period after the first four or more cases, “FIS may suspend that National Ski Association’s membership for a period of up to 4 years.”
The rules also stipulate that if “More than one Athlete or other Person from a National Ski Association commits an Anti-Doping Rule violation during an International Event… FIS may fine that National Ski Association in an amount up to CHF 50’000.–.”
FIS has yet to officially consider any of these actions, but they will likely be brought up for discussion soon.
Russian anchor Anton Shipulin celebrates his team’s gold medal in the men’s relay over Germany’s Simon Schempp. So far, no male biathletes from Russia have been implicated in the doping scandal.
In a statement released by U.S. Ski and Snowboad, CEO Tiger Shaw said, “On behalf of our athletes, we have a fundamental obligation to fight for fairness in sport, to advocate for the health and welfare of athletes and to protect the image of our sport. Now we look to the International Ski Federation (FIS) to hold a FIS Council meeting to review the IOC’s decision and related evidence to consider its impact on the Russian Ski Association, its FIS committee members, officials and athletes.”
Meanwhile, the IBU will hold an Executive Board meeting this weekend, in which it may address violations of its own statutes.
The IBU did not implement rules similar to the FIS rules regarding suspending member federations or canceling events on the basis of repeated doping offenses until its 2014 Congress, which was held after the Sochi Olympics. But Russia may have violated other IBU statutes.
In the 2012 IBU Rules, it is stated that “The IBU may impose a fine either by requesting payment or by withholding financial support from a member federation if more than one athlete or more than one person from such member federation commits a violation of the IBU Anti-Doping Rules during a 12-month period.”
In the same edition of the rules, a provision states that “IBU member federations that are full members may be suspended by the Executive Board, for up to two years, until the next IBU Congress if they do not fulfill their obligations stated in Art. 2.3.2.”
Among the “Obligations of Full Members” described in that article is, “to comply with the IBU Constitution and Rules.” Two of the “Objectives” listed in the IBU Consitution are “to prevent doping in biathlon” and “to prevent all methods and practices that might jeopardize the integrity of biathlon competitions.”
All of the athletes banned by the IOC, additionally, may see sanctions from their relevant international federations. The skiers and biathletes are currently under provisional suspensions from FIS and the IBU, and doping hearing panels will (eventually) consider the evidence against them and decide whether to bring anti-doping rule violations. The time frame for that is unclear.
Likely CAS Rulings
There are already 22 appeals registered at CAS by athletes who were disqualified from the 2014 Olympics by the IOC’s Disciplinary Commission.
Alexander Legkov is one of 22 Russian athletes appealing their disqualifications to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. (Photo: Marcel Hilger)
Thus it is likely, but not guaranteed, that the retroactive disqualification from the 2014 Games will remain standing.
(Then there’s the question of getting the medals back: biathlete Yana Romanova said that “I’d rather throw my medal in the dumpster, than return it to the IOC,” referring to the silver medal she was given in the women’s relay and was ordered to return after her disqualification.)
Besides disqualifying the atheltes from the 2014 Games, the IOC Disciplinary Commission decisions also banned them from all future Olympics. There is no provision for lifetime suspensions on a first doping offense in the World Anti-Doping Code, so this could be a real fight at the CAS level.
Similarly, the IOC’s Tuesday decision included a ruling that no Russian athlete who had ever been suspended for an Anti-Doping Rule Violation could compete in the 2018 Olympics. That is very unlikely to stand, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled several times, in different specific circumstances, against past doping violations being used anew to bar athletes from competing in a new set of events.
Aside from the issue of double jeopardy, there would be an inherent unfairness to preventing Russian athletes who had completed doping suspensions from competing, while others who had served and completed similar suspensions were allowed to participate.
Athletes who may challenge this provision include cross-country skier Natalia Matveeva and biathlete Alexander Loginov, both of whom finished their suspensions for using EPO, and have since returned to competition.
In comparison, Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway and Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland have both served doping suspensions and will almost certainly be on the start line.
Outstanding Cases
Finally, there are many more cases that have not yet been handled.
The IOC has so far only suspended athletes involved in a doping cover-up scheme at the 2014 Olympics. But in the course of the investigation of that scheme, evidence came to light of many, many more cases outside of the Games.
Five members of Cross Country Canada’s 2014 Olympic team get the perfect photo opp at the Olympic rings in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. (From left to right) Perianne Jones, Amanda Ammar, Heidi Widmer, Brittany Webster, and Emily Nishikawa. (Photo: Emily Nishikawa)
On Nov. 9, news broke that four more Russian cross-country skiers had been sanctioned for cheating during the 2014 Sochi Olympics. So far, six Russian nordic athletes in total have had their 2014 Olympic results erased by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). These athletes are also prohibited from participating in all future Olympics due to their affiliation with Russia’s elaborate-state sanctioned doping enterprise.
Julia Ivanova, half of Russia’s 2014 Olympic team-sprint duo, is one of the six penalized Russians. In Sochi, Ivanova and her teammate Anastasia Dotsenko skied to 10th place in the classic team sprint. (Thus far, Dotsenko has not been implicated in the doping scheme.)
Russia’s Julia Ivanova racing at 2012 World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden.
It’d be easy to say the Russian pair was way out of the medals — theirs was simply another tainted performance already removed from the official results.
Yet among those clean athletes caught up in the win-at-all-costs mantra of the Sochi doping regime are Canada’s team-sprint pair Perianne Jones, now 32, and Dasha Gaiazova Atkins, 33. Looking back, “What might of been?” is a legitimate question the two retired skiers have asked.
Ivanova and Dotsenko made the Sochi team-sprint final as what’s referred to as lucky losers — 10th place in their semifinal wasn’t enough for them to automatically advance but their time was fast enough relative to the rest of the field to put them through to the final. Jones and Gaiazova Atkins were right behind them in 11th, which was the end of their day.
“I texted Peri that morning when the article came out in Fasterskier and said, ‘Should we start training for a redo?’ ” Gaiazova Atkins, who was born in Russia but spent more than half of her life in Canada, said on the phone from her home in Calgary. “Because we could have been in the finals and then you never know how that goes. It could have had a much, much better result and we could have had a chance for a medal.”
One year before the 2014 Olympics, at the pre-Olympic World Cup in Sochi, Jones and Gaiazova (the latter of which has been married since, hence the new last name) placed third in the classic team sprint. Notably, they were third in a photo finish with the second-place Russians — Ivanova teamed up with Natalia Matveeva in that race.
Canada’s Perianne Jones (l) and Dasha Gaiazova having some fun after notching their first podium together with bronze in the classic team sprint at the Sochi pre-Olympic World Cup in February 2013. (Photo: Chandra Crawford)
Jones first heard about the Ivanova news through Gaiazova Atkins’s text message.
“When it goes back and you realize that something could have gone a little bit differently or wonder what could’ve been, then you think about it a lot more and it definitely hits you a little personally,” Jones said on the phone from Canmore, Alberta. “For sure, it makes me feel sick and I cannot go back. No one can. That’s the unfair part. … It’s an interesting conundrum: people have put their lives into something and then are not given a fair chance.”
The “what if” part of this story is multi-layered. Ivanova raced twice in the 2014 Olympics before the team sprint; first in the 10-kilometer classic on Feb. 13 and again in the 4 x 5 k relay on Feb. 15. What if Ivanova had been tested after those races and a legit lab had found her to be doped? What if Ivanova and Dotsenko never raced the team sprint on Feb. 19? Or a different iteration of Russians were slower in the semis? On paper at least, in this post-Sochi thought experiment, the Canadians advance to the final as lucky losers.
The perspective of time buffered by athletic retirement seemed to have taken the edge off the tone of both Jones and Gaiazova Atkins, based on their voices over the phone. They both sounded calm and measured, without a sense of bitterness. But they raised several important points as the fallout from the Russia’s doping program continues.
Canada’s Perianne Jones racing to fifth in the 1.4 k classic sprint at 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. She placed 24th overall and retired after that 2014/2015 season.(Photo: Flyingpointroad.com)
On Jones’s mind were those athletes still competing, and those wondering if they, too, are racing in an unlevel playing field.
“I am retired now,” Jones said. “So it would have been tough had all this stuff been coming out as I was still ski racing. I think it is tough for the athletes who are still competing now. Not that it is easy to hear about it after the fact, but you definitely have to believe you can do it while you are ski racing. I imagine that at least most of the playing field is clean and that would be hard given everything that has transpired over the last little while.”
Gaiazova Atkins’s story resonates due to her literal mid-teen continental shift. At the age of 15, she moved with her family from Russia to Quebec. Although she started skiing in Russia, her swift trajectory up into the international ranks began as a Canadian. She did, however, recall a Russian ski culture where more than a healthy lifestyle choice was on the line.
“I would say there is more pressure in Russia,” Gaiazova Atkins said. “And maybe because in Russia, in so many ways the country is so far behind in development … they have very few resources. So there is a lot of pressure to become a big skier because if you can race fast, you can do quite well for yourself in the country. … In America, it is not the same. And here in Canada, Chandra [Crawford] got a gold medal, shake her hand and off she goes to get an education.”
Gaiazova Atkins’s perspective was one of trying to humanizing cheaters and would-be cheats, people with families and their own demons straddling their shoulders.
“The incentive to perform is so much higher in Russia,” Gaiazova Atkins said. “And the alternative? You can live in poverty and then, OK, I am going to take a chance. So for a lot of athletes, it may not be perceived as high risk because it’s the only chance to do well in life.”
While she expressed that blame should be placed on those involved, Gaiazova Atkins emphasized truly understanding an athlete’s complicity.
“I know these girls and I know the guys who are now being stripped of their results,” she said. “I follow them on Instagram and I see what they are saying in Russian, and it’s crazy they are still denying they did this. But then, you think about a big country like Russia and the whole thing, you almost ask yourself, ‘Did the athletes even know this was happening? Did they have any say?’ It is just like, you have no choice as an athlete.”
Dasha Gaiazova racing to 44th in the women’s 10 k classic individual start at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She retired at the end of that 2013/2014 season and is currently coaching the Space Dogs Ski Club (where she’s also the president) in Calgary.
Several times, Gaiazova Atkins stated her belief that the doping was a top-down mandate, a state-sanctioned endeavor with upper-government power plays manifesting with Sochi podiums. But she’s also no apologist.
“I follow on Instagram and their posts from all those guys, like Legkov and people that support him,” she said. “They say, we are with [Legkov] because we know how hard he works and how much work ethic he has. And I am thinking to myself, every single person racing is working just as hard and harder.
“I feel sorry for those athletes, especially those who aren’t as systematic like the state-supervised program,” she added. “The ones who choose themselves and go to doctors, no pity for you.”
As far as moving forward, Gaiazova Atkins said she was in favor of nothing less than a wholesale Russian ban from the upcoming PyeongChang Games.
“You cannot slap them on the hand and say, ‘OK, don’t do this next time, please’,” she said. “It has to be with consequences for the state, for the country.”
Gaiazova Atkins also believes that Ivanova’s doping has had lasting impact on potential funding for the current crop of Canadian cross-country skiers. “Eleventh place is not a top 10,” she said.
“Cross Country Canada funding is based on our results, and there is a big difference between a top 10 and 11th place sometimes,” she added. “To take us out of the equation, this had a trickle effect on the whole system, like our whole nation may have been affected by the funding because we did not get a top-10 result.”
As the concentric ripples from Russian doping in Sochi move outward, they’ve arrived in North America, nearly four years late, with the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, on the horizon.
Canadians Perianne Jones and Dasha Gaiazova celebrate their first bronze together in the 2013 Sochi World Cup classic team sprint. (Photo: Chandra Crawford)
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson at 2017 World Championships, after she finished 13th in the women’s 10 k classic on Feb. 28. On Sunday, she won her first sprint of the season at Sweden’s FIS season-opener in Gällivare.
For the third and final day of International Ski Federation (FIS) racing in Gällivare, the home crowd would not be let down. Both the men’s and women’s 1-kilometer classic sprints were won by Swedes, one of whom has established herself as one of the world’s best sprinters, ending last season second in the 2016/2017 Sprint World Cup at the age of 23.
Stina Nilsson, now 24 and entering her fifth year of racing on the World Cup, tallied her first win of the season in Sweden’s season-opening sprint on Sunday. So did Oskar Svensson, 22, who competed at his first World Championships last season.
The day started with 1 k qualifiers, which Nilsson’s teammate Hanna Falk won in 3:58.86 minutes. Nilsson followed in second, 1.9 seconds back, and the two advanced through their quarterfinals and semifinals (with Nilsson winning both) before meeting head to head in the final. Also advancing to the final were Russia’s Natalia Matveeva (who won the other semifinal), Yulia Belorukova and Evgeniya Shapovalova, as well as Switzerland’s Nadine Fähndrich.
In the final, Nilsson held off two Russians for the overall win, finishing first in 3:53.75. Matveeva finished 1.89 seconds later for second place, while Belorukova claimed third (+3.16). Falk placed fourth (+5.50), followed by Shapovalova in fifth (+6.09) and Fähndrich in sixth (+6.58).
Rounding out the top 10 were Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter and Jonna Sundling in seventh and eighth, respectively, followed by Russia’s Elena Soboleva in ninth and Sweden’s Anna Haag in 10th.
The lone North American woman in Sunday’s sprint, Dahria Beatty qualified for the heats in 28th, 17.29 seconds out of first. She went on to finish fifth in her quarterfinal, 9.94 seconds behind Haag, who won that heat. Overall, Beatty ended the day in 23rd. She also raced the 5 k freestyle to start the long weekend in Gällivare and placed 56th in that race.
“There were parts of the course I felt I skied really well in my qualifier today and other parts that definitely need some work,” Beatty wrote in an email. “I was happy with how my striding and double pole felt and my body was moving a lot better today than on Friday in the 5k Skate. The snow was tricky today and I didn’t carry my speed very well through the transitions and up the double pitched herringbone/run section on the back of the course.”
Beatty, a 23-year-old member of Canada’s World Cup Team, flew to Sweden with most of her team on Nov. 11 to get some time on European snow and compete in some early FIS races before the start of the World Cup.
“I was really happy to be able to ski a heat and get that feeling of pushing head to head with others,” she continued. “It’s always good to see where you are losing time or keep up in the heats to figure out what needs to be worked on before the next weekend. I am hoping I can take what I learned today and make some improvements for the World Cup opener next weekend.”
Kikkan Randall of the U.S. Ski Team raced Friday’s 5 k skate and Saturday’s 10 k classic, but opted out of Sunday’s classic sprint. Sixty-seven women contested Sunday’s sprint qualifier.
Svensson Tops Men’s Sprint
Meanwhile, Svensson, a member of Sweden’s national A-team, topped a field of 114 in the men’s classic sprint. He started out by winning the qualifier by 0.76 seconds over Russia’s Anton Gafarov in 3:24.06.
In the first quarterfinal, Svensson placed second to Russia’s Andrey Parfenov, finishing 0.14 seconds behind him, and both advanced to the semifinals. There, Svensson won the first semifinal by just 0.01 seconds over fellow Swede Teodor Peterson. They advanced to the final, along with four Russians: Gafarov, Alexander Panzhinskiy, Nikita Kriukov, and Maxim Vylegzhanin.
Sweden’s Oskar Svensson leads Alex Harvey and others during their quarterfinal at the freestyle sprint at 2017 World Cup Finals in Quebec City last March. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
In the finishing stretch of the final, Svensson and Peterson again lunged for the win, which Svensson took by 0.4 seconds in 3:21.63. Kriukov finished third, 2.12 seconds out of first, followed closely by Panzhinskiy in fourth (+2.18) and Vylegzhanin in fifth (+2.84). Gafarov ended the day in sixth (+22.99).
Also in the top 10, Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson placed seventh, Parfenov was eighth, Russia’s Alexey Vitsenko finished ninth and Sweden’s Johan Haeggström was 10th.
Of the six Canadian men who raced on Sunday, World Cup Team member Len Valjas was the lone qualifier in 24th (+8.69). In the second quarterfinal, from which two lucky losers advanced to the semifinal, he finished sixth, 3.85 seconds behind the heat’s winner, Halfvarsson. That put Valjas 29th overall on the day.
Julien Locke (Canadian U25 Team) raced to 39th in the qualifier, 12.32 seconds out of first and 2.36 seconds out of the top 30, for his best result of the weekend. He finished 72nd in the 10 k freestyle on Friday.
“It was a long, twisty course with a fairly gentle profile with the exception of two very short, punchy steep sections,” Locke, who recently earned World Cup starts at Frozen Thunder trials, wrote in an email. “With all of the fresh snow the last couple days, the track was a soft on the corners and broken up on the climbs.
“I felt that I skied well in the qualifier but was lacking tempo and glide speed on the climbs,” he continued. “The shape feels good and I was able to have a high output throughout the qualifier. I would have liked to race the heats as they would have been excellent race prep for the first World Cup on Friday.”
Another Canadian, Knute Johnsgaard (World Cup Team) followed in 40th, 0.48 seconds behind Locke and 12.80 seconds out of first. Russell Kennedy, last year’s NorAm winner who trains in Canmore with Team R.A.D., raced to 43rd (+13.30). On Friday, he finished 48th in the 10 k skate.
“It is always a bit hard with sprints, but the goal was to close really well,” Kennedy wrote in an email. “I felt strong and was much more happy with this sprint than my Frozen Thunder qualifier.”
With firm tracks and good skis, Kennedy described his Gällivare qualifier as “super smooth.”
“There was one pretty icy corner I thought it was kinda fun since there was a big berm you could ride but there were definitely some falls around that area,” he wrote.
Not wanting to overburden his body before some of the other races he is targeting in the upcoming weeks, Kennedy opted out of Saturday’s 15 k classic.
“I am trying to build my fitness a bit through these races so racing Friday was really good for my fitness and I took off Saturday to get some rest as I have a lot of races coming up that I want to perform well at,” he explained.
Two other Canadians raced Sunday’s sprint qualifier, with Jess Cockney finishing in 48th (+14.05) and Jack Carlyle in 105th (+33.44).
Sergey Ustiugov was extremely excited to capture another Tour de Ski stage win in Toblach, Italy, in January. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)
Welcome to World Cup Windup, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts with the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, on Nov. 24.
RUSSIA
Overall in Nations Cup Last Year:Fourth
Women’s Ranking 2016/2017:Fifth
Men’s Ranking 2016/2017:Second
Who’s Back:
Ust-iu-gov! Ust-iu-gov! Sergey Ustiugov, a sensation in the last two seasons, is back for more. There’s also top-20 ranked overall skiers Alexander Bessmertnykh and Andrey Larkov, seventh-ranked sprinter Natalia Matveeva, 10th-ranked distance skier Yulia Tchekaleva, and runner-up in the U23 standings Yulia Belorukova – who along with Matveeva won silver in the team sprint at 2017 World Championships. Plus, 2010 Olympic sprint gold medalist Nikita Kriukov, who didn’t have an individual podium last season but won World Championships team sprint gold with Ustiugov. Who else is back is a bit complicated as …
Who’s Missing:
… Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Alexey Petukhov, Evgeny Belov, and Evgenia Shapovalova are all racing in pre-World Cup FIS races, but have been banned by the International Olympic Committee for doping at the 2014 Olympics. They are appealing their cases, but if the ruling holds, they will at the very least miss the 2018 Olympics. The International Ski Federation (FIS) may or may not implement a ban of their own which would keep the five off the World Cup. Julia Ivanova was also banned by the IOC but has not returned to racing.
Pre-Season Results:
Yulia Belorukova is a rising star. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)
So far, a number of Russians have done well in pre-season FIS racing. Ilia Chernousov finished second to Switzerland’s Dario Cologna in a trial in Davos. Alexey Chervotkin won a 15 k skate in Muonio, Finland, where Maxim Vylegzhanin picked up two top-six finishes and last year’s U23 World Champion Alexander Bolshunov won a 10 k classic. Natalia Nepryaeva also shone on the women’s side.
Recent Drama:
The biggest drama, of course, is the doping investigation which has enveloped the previously-mentioned five athletes (and Julia Ivanova, who has retired and is no longer racing).
Russian news recently reported that Yulia Tchekaleva, Anastasia Dotsenko, Natalia Matveeva, Natalia Zhukova, Natalia Korosteleva, Alexander Bessmertnykh, and Nikita Kriukov were also on the “Duchess List” of athletes allegedly given performance-enhancing drugs at Sochi. They have not been asked to have hearings with the IOC Disciplinary Commission, but it is possible that this could still occur.
Dotsenko took last season off to have a baby, but is back in training this year.
Russia’s Nikita Kriukov (l) and Sergey Ustiugov after winning the men’s classic team sprint on Feb. 26 at 2017 at FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland.
Coach Yuri Kaminski talked about why Nikita Kriukov might be dangerous this year: “Neither in Vancouver nor at the last World Championships was he the favorite. In this regard, the Vancouver situation and the current one are somewhere similar.” By contrast, at the 2014 Olympics he was a favorite and did not win, teaming up with Vylegzhanin to finish second in the team sprint. “Sergey [Ustiugov] goes to the Olympic Games as a favorite, and this greatly complicates life. The situation, I would say, is exactly the same as that of Kriukov before Sochi, where he was coming in as a two-time World Champion in a sprint. It was believed that he was obliged to win at least one gold medal, that’s the way the task was set… all this was very hard. And it so happened that the circumstances turned against us.”
Meanwhile, Alexander Panzhinsky still smarts from his just-by-a-toe loss to Kriukov in the 2010 Olympic sprint, and wants to win in PyeongChang: “I was burning inside from that defeat for a very long. And I dreamed many times, and thought about those last seconds a lot. Although on the other hand, it may be worthwhile to look at it as a very big plus for me. I really was very young in Vancouver. If I won, I took this career best for an athlete… [instead] it was motivation that helped me survive all these difficult years, when there were no big victories. And now it helps to keep this goal, to become an Olympic champion. This is generally the main task in my career.”
Best Social Media Presence:
If you don’t know the Russian team outside their results or racing, social media is an excellent way to fix that. Alexander Panzhinskiy makes sure to translate the captions of (most of) his posts from Russian into English and makes an effort to connect to the sport’s global fanbase.
Ilya Chernousov also posts primarily in English, and makes training in Switzerland look pretty okay. He trains primarily with a long-distance race team, however, and is not part of the Russian national training group.
If you don’t understand Russian, however, it’s probably best to stick with a visual medium. Sergey Ustiugov and his girlfriend, World Cup skier Elena Soboleva, both have great Instagram feeds (Sergey’s / Elena’s).
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla celebrates across the line after edging out Russia’s Natalia Matveeva and her Norwegian teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg in the women’s cross-country sprint on Saturday at the 2017 Blink Skifestivalen in Sandnes, Norway. (Photo: Axelar/Ørjan Dalseth)
The fans in the well-filled stands of the 1-kilometer rollerski city course in Sandnes, Norway, had many reasons to cheer loudly on Saturday, as their local heroes claimed victories in all four sprint events that concluded the 2017 Blink Skifestivalen (Ski Festival).
In the final race of the day, the men’s cross-country sprint was decided by the length of a rollerski, with Norway’s Sindre Bjørnestad Skar crossing first, just 0.1 seconds ahead of Sweden’s Teodor Peterson. Skar took the win with a time of 3:27.6 minutes after two laps around the flat course, which featured two short climbs over a ramp and a bridge. The third place on the podium went to Kasper Stadaas, also of Norway, 1.9 seconds out of first.
Norway’s Sindre Bjørnestad Skar (front) lunges across the line ahead of Sweden’s Teodor Peterson in the men’s cross-country sprint at the 2017 Blink Skivestivalen on Saturday in Sandnes, Norway. (Photo: NRK screenshot)
Second in Friday’s mass start, Skar advanced through the rounds on Saturday with narrow victories in his quarterfinal and semifinal as well. Last season, Skar won a World Cup at the freestyle sprint in Toblach, Italy, and achieved two other podiums. He raced to third in the sprint qualification at the World Championships in Lahti, Finland, and went on to finish 13th.
Andy Newell of the U.S. Ski Team (USST) was the lone North American starter of the day, and his run ended in the quarterfinal heats when he crossed the line in third, 1.1 seconds behind Norwegians Sondre Turvoll Fossli and 0.3 seconds behind Sivert Knotten. In an Instagram post, he mentioned breaking three poles in three races he competed in at this year’s Blink. He finished 16th in the 60 k classic and 18th in the 15 k freestyle mass start.
In the women’s cross-country sprint, a number of the last season’s top sprinters contended for the podium. Reigning Sprint World Cup champion Maiken Caspersen Falla emerged with the victory in the final with a time of 3:49.6 after keeping her challengers at bay in the long finishing straight. Russia’s Natalia Matveeva placed second (+0.8) and another Norwegian Ingvild Flugstad Østberg took third (+1.1).
Earlier in the day, Falla won her semifinal, after she advancing from her quarterfinal with a wildcard. Originally Falla had finished the heat more than 30 seconds back, following a spill from which she emerged with a slightly bloody right knee.
“Suddenly the asphalt was there,” Falla told Norwegian broadcaster NRK, according to a translation. “I am very happy that I was able to protect the face and head… I was really scared. I’m terrified.”
She explained that it had been a long time since her last crash on rollerskis, and that she likely had placed a pole on her own shoe. No other athlete was involved in the incident, and her semifinal heat started with seven athletes.
On Friday, Falla placed third in the women’s 10 k mass start after outlasting the group of skiers she was with in the finishing straight.
In the women’s biathlon sprint, French veteran Marie Dorin-Habert made a minor rookie mistake while leading when she knelt down on the shooting mat for another prone shooting, before realizing that all her competitors had correctly taken a standing-position stance. Maybe she had assumed that — like the men in Saturday’s sprint format — they also would have to shoot four times.
France’s Marie Dorin-Habert (l) erroneously kneels down to take the prone position in the second shooting stage of the women’s biathlon sprint at the 2017 Blink Skifestivalen on Saturday in Sandnes, Norway. In the lead until that point, she went on to finish third. (Photo: NRK screenshot)
She quickly stood back up, but after incurring a penalty she was overtaken by Sweden’s Hanna Öberg and Norway’s Marte Olsbu. On the final lap Olsbu managed to pass the Swede to claim the victory in a time of 7:57.3 minutes with two penalties, while Öberg finished second (+2.8, with two penalties) and Dorin-Habert third (+5.0, with one penalty) ahead of Sweden’s Emma Nilsson (+9.4, with two penalties).
Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen after winning the men’s biathlon sprint on the last day of the 2017 Blink Skifestivalen on Saturday in Sandnes, Norway. (Photo: Axelar/Ørjan Dalseth)
In the men’s biathlon sprint, racers skied four loops and shot in four stages. Coming into the final shooting stage, Norway’s Lars Helge Birkeland and Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, along with France’s Simon Fourcade, had created a small gap to the rest of the field. While Birkeland and Christiansen hit all their targets, Fourcade had to ski one short penalty lap through a traffic roundabout. Turning sharp left into the finishing stretch, Christiansen overtook Birkeland and pushed hard until the line in a time of 12:09.6 with two penalties, while Birkeland finished 4.6 seconds back in seconds place (with one penalty). Fourcade held onto third place (+16.2, with three penalties) ahead of a chase group.
The excited fans also sang a little birthday tune for Norway’s Tarjei Bø — who turned 29 on Saturday — as he came into the finish in seventh place (+42.2) smiling and waving to the crowd.
No North American biathletes raced at this year’s Blink.
U.S. Ski Team teammates Jessie Diggins (l) and Sadie Bjornsen celebrate their bronze medal in the women’s 6 x 1.3-kilometer classic team sprint on Sunday at the 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
LAHTI, Finland — Statistically speaking, most might have bet on the Swede — particularly if it came down to a lunge to the line. After all, that’s how Sweden’s Stina Nilsson won her first World Cup sprint against Norway’s 2017 sprint world champion Maiken Caspersen Falla.
On two other occasions, Nilsson has skate sprinted to the win in a photo finish — once during last year’s Ski Tour Canada and the other during this season’s freestyle sprint in Falun, Sweden. Perhaps most memorably, it’s also how the Swede won her first classic sprint title, denying Norway of a podium at this season’s opening World Cup weekend.
Considering her finishing history, if Sunday’s 2017 Nordic World Ski Championships 6 x 1.3-kilometer classic team sprint came down to a lunge, Nilsson as Sweden’s anchor was ready.
American Jessie Diggins (l) going head to head with Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (r) during the final 100 meters of women’s 6 x 1.3-kilometer classic team sprint on Sunday at the 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
And when Nilsson’s white suit cornered the final turn centimeters behind that of American Jessie Diggins, some saw Sweden on the podium with bronze.
Even less than a year ago, the U.S. saw themselves as an outside contender for the 2017 World Championships classic team sprint, according to U.S. Ski Team women’s coach Matt Whitcomb. American success in freestyle team sprints was a little more palpable after Diggins and Randall took gold at the 2013 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, while the year before that, Randall and her U.S. teammate, Sadie Bjornsen finished second during a regular World Cup event in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The U.S. team’s best team-sprint result following 2013 World Championships was fifth in last year’s freestyle team sprint in Planica, Slovenia, with Sophie Caldwell and Ida Sargent. Never before had the U.S. women medaled in a classic World Championships event.
“This was an event that, in April, we talked about as an outside medal shot,” Whitcomb said after Sunday’s race.
With that in mind, the team started brainstorming of a way of “coming from some sort of surprising attack” when the time came in Lahti.
“This was a team that has been in the making for a while,” Whitcomb said of the eventual Lahti Word Championships classic team-sprint combo, Bjornsen and Diggins. “Once we knew [Bjornsen] was healthy. We had her specifically skip the skiathlon because we thought with a little extra rest, she could be that much sharper. But we had four other women that were up for serious consideration for this spot and we didn’t make the call until yesterday afternoon at 2:25 p.m.”
Whether they made the right call would not be determined until a little less than 12 hours later: in the final 100 meter showdown between Diggins and Nilsson.
But while the Swede appeared to have experience on her side, drafting off Diggins until the final turn and pulling around to her right within the finishing stretch, the American showed no signs of letting up. With every pole Nilsson took, Diggins poled a centimeter further. Finally, with nineteen hundredths of a second to spare, Diggins crossed first, holding off Nilsson and securing bronze for the U.S.
“I was happy it didn’t just come down to a walk-through medal,” Whitcomb said. “[Bjornsen and Diggins] felt the pressure of being selected for this team and … they’ve awarded everybody that could have been on it.”
Bjornsen’s First, Diggins’s Fourth: Bronze Medals in the Making
Sunday’s bronze medal marks Diggins’s fourth World Championships podium, a record for the U.S. She now has two team and two individual podium finishes in three world champs — half of those coming from this week in Lahti.
However, Diggins is adamant that her medals would not be possible without her teammates. And with regards to the team events especially, the 25-year-old Minnesota native is right.
Two of the three laps Bjornsen skied for the team were the fastest recorded for the first-leg skiers.
Bjornsen, 27, led the entire field coming into the exchange after her first lap, pulling the likes of Russia’s Yulia Belorukova, Norway’s Hedi Weng, Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter, and Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen behind her.
American Jessie Diggins (10) leads Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (11) and Germany’s Nicole Fessel (12) during the first climb of the women’s 6 x 1.3-kilometer classic team sprint on Sunday at the 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
After her third lap as well, Bjornsen was first through the exchange, putting Diggins in the front for the first climb of the final lap, just ahead of Russia’s Natalia Matveeva and Germany’s Nicole Fessel.
“Both of us were very strong in the first hill,” Bjornsen said of her and Diggins.
Both women strode evenly through the first climb of every lap.
It was in the second climb, where the pitch made the switching to herringbone requisite for most skiers, that both Bjornsen and Diggins indicated they found themselves losing time.
“Herringbone isn’t my particular strength,” Diggins explained.
Instead, the American emphasized areas where she would excel: the downhills and flats.
“[I was] just thinking ‘go, go, go, go, go!’ on the herringbone, and then reel them in on the double-pole and on the downhills,” Diggins added.
The 2017 Nordic World Championships classic team sprint podium on Sunday in Lahti, Finland, with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Heidi Weng in first (c), Russia’s Natalia Matveeva and Yulia Belorukova in second (l), and Sadie Bjornsen and Jessie Diggins in third (r). (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
Diggins did just that by her final lap, regaining contact with Nilsson by the final descent back into the stadium and passing her by the final turn. She held off the Swede for third and crossed 18.6 seconds behind Falla, who clinched gold for Norway with a time of 20:20.56 minutes.
“To go with Maiken is a dream for me,” Weng said during a press conference. “She was just flying there. I was yelling at her. So I’m so happy today.”
Russia’s Belorukova and Matveeva finished second, 5.56 seconds behind Norway to take silver. This being Matveeva’s fifth World Championships, the 30-year-old Russian expressed gratitude at finally finding the podium, especially after crashing and missing out on the final in Thursday’s freestyle sprint.
“It’s really great to finally have a medal from this championship,” Matveeva said during the press conference via a Russian translator.
Though the world-champs medal is Bjornsen’s first, it’s not the first time the thought has crossed her mind. A Washington state native, Bjornsen indicated she has been targeting a world-champs podium for quite some time. The chance to do so in the classic discipline, her preferred technique, was also surreal.
“I have been dreaming to be on a team sprint at World Championships or Olympics for a while now and it’s so cool to finally be here,” Bjornsen said after the race. “I think it’s finally sinking in, because I feel like I just wanna cry.”
Despite it being Diggins’s fourth medal, she explained this one had no less meaning than the any of the rest. With her other world-champs podiums in the skating disciplines, she sees the classic team sprint bronze she earned alongside Bjornsen as a sign of her growing abilities as an all-around cross-country competitor.
“For me, this is one of the most exciting ones, because as Sadie said, it’s in classic,” Diggins said.
Sadie Bjornsen (r) tends to her U.S. teammate Jessie Diggins after Diggins outlunged Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (not shown) for the bronze medal in the women’s 6 x 1.3-kilometer classic team sprint on Sunday at the 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
“And I don’t want to be just a skater, or just a 5 k skater,” she added. “I want to be able to do it all, and do it with my team and do it for the team. So this is really pretty special for us.”
Further reflecting on the race, Diggins saw her move to drop out of Saturday’s skiathlon as playing a role in her eventual podium on Sunday. Though her intent in the 15 k skiathlon had originally been to aim for top-three finish, upon realizing she was out of contention she made the decision to stop racing. Almost halfway through the race, she saw she stood a better chance at medaling in the team sprint by saving herself and not pushing through the event’s skating portion.
“At the halfway point I had a choice to make — dig deep for a race that wasn’t going to be close to what I felt I was capable of or stop and save everything for the team sprint,” Diggins wrote in an email on Sunday after the team sprint, referring to her skiathlon effort.
Even if the decision was hard, the youngest U.S. World Cup team member made it without any outside advice. In retrospect, her foresight to forego finishing the race appeared accurate after Sunday’s result.
“I had to trust my gut because I believe so much in Sadie and that we had a chance to do something amazing together, and for me, the team event will always come first! And today looking back, I absolutely confirmed that it was the right choice because when Stina went on that climb I was able to follow and catch up, and have that extra gear in the finishing lanes!”
The other North American women’s team competing on Sunday, Canada’s Cendrine Browne and Dahria Beatty finished the day in 13th, after missing a spot in the final by two places. They finished seventh in the first semifinal.
While they didn’t advance, the two Canadian National U25 Team members were pleased with the effort and the progress they see the team as having made over the season and during these championships.
“We pretty much always have someone who has a good day personally, whether it’s a strong result or they just felt really good,” Beatty said after. “It’s nice to have those takeaways so that when I have a bad race, someone else had a good race and you can kind of talk to them about what they did right on the course.”
In future team sprints, too, the two see Canada as one day in the mix.
“I think it will be possible to qualify eventually,” Browne said. “I think we were pretty close on that first and second lap. And I think we’ll get faster and we’ll be competitive at some point. So it’s positive.“
— Jason Albert, Harald Zimmer, Chelsea Little, and Alex Kochon contributed
The iconic U.S. women’s relay socks, belonging to Jessie Diggins (l) and Sadie Bjornsen (r), standing on the third step of the women 6 x 1.3-kilometer classic team sprint podium on Sunday at the 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
Heidi Weng and Maiken Caspersen Fall of Norway (center) bested Yulia Belorukova and Natalia Matveeva of Russia (left) for gold in the women’s team sprint at 2017 World Championships, with Sadie Bjornsen and Jessie Diggins of the U.S. (right) outsprinting Sweden for bronze. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Classic team sprints
Defending champions Norway repeated gold in the women’s team sprint, with Heidi Weng and Maiken Caspersen Falla crossing the finish line first in Lahti, Finland. On the second-to-last loop, it looked like Russia could have something to say about that. Yulia Belorukova put in a furious sprint up the course’s biggest climb, and then beat Weng to the exchange. But her teammate Natalia Matveeva could not match the pace when Falla put on her own sprint on the last uphill. Russia finished second for silver, +5.56.
The competition for bronze was closer, with Germany, Finland, Sweden, and the United States going out of the stadium for the last loop together in chase of the Norwegian and Russian leaders. The last climb was defining in the race for bronze, with Jessie Diggins of the United States staying closest to Sweden’s Stina Nilsson. Diggins caught Nilsson on the downhill and was able to stay just ahead of the Swede to the finish, claiming bronze (+18.38) along with teammate Sadie Bjornsen. It was a return to the team sprint podium for Diggins: after winning the team sprint at 2013 World Championships with Kikkan Randall, she teamed up with Sophie Caldwell in 2015 but the pair finished eighth.
Nilsson and Ida Ingemarsdotter settled for fourth (+18.57), and the Finnish team of Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Kerttu Niskanen finished fifth (+23.02).
The Canadian team of Cendrine Browne and Dahria Beatty was seventh in their semifinal and landed 13th overall.
In the men’s team sprint, Norway set a high pace from the beginning, with phenom Johannes Høsflot Klæbo attacking on the steep uphill every time he skied. On his second and third loops, he tagged off to Emil Iversen with gaps of just over five seconds to the rest of the field. But Iversen had a hard time holding the lead, in part because of Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov, who had won the 30 k skiathlon the day before and put in a huge effort to catch Iversen on the fourth loop of the team sprint.
On the final loop, Finland’s Iivo Niskanen bridged the gap up to Iversen, mostly on the steep uphill and then also with ski speed on the downhill. But the time the pair entered the stadium, Niskanen had caught the Norwegian and was moving with higher speed. He decided to switch tracks to overtake Iversen, but Iversen decided to switch tracks just a second later, without checking one last time to make sure the track was clear. He fell, taking out Niskanen with him.
That allowed Ustiugov and Italy’s Federico Pellegrino to go sailing by to claim gold and silver (+2.14) with their teammates Nikita Kriukov and Dietmar Noeckler. It was the second gold for Russia in the event in three World Championships; Kriukov and Alexey Petukhov won in 2013, and also took silver in 2015.
Niskanen got up and claimed bronze (+8.64 with Sami Jauhojärvi), swearing as he crossed the finish line; with a broken pole, Iversen limped across the line in fourth (+18.42). He was called to a jury meeting but ultimately no teams were disqualified because of the crash.
Erik Bjornsen of the United States won a sprint finish for fifth (+23.58) with teammate Simi Hamilton), besting Lenny Valjas (+27.02 with teammate Alex Harvey) of Canada.
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Nordic combined 4 x 5 k team event
Germany (Björn Kircheisen, Eric Frenzel, Fabian Rießle, and Johannes Rydzek) took gold in the nordic combined 4 x 5 k team event on Sunday at Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland, while Norway placed second and Austria third. (Photo: FIS Nordic Combined/Twitter)
[UPDATED] After sweeping the first individual nordic-combined competition of 2017 Nordic World Championships on Friday, Germany achieved gold as a team, with Björn Kircheisen, Eric Frenzel, Fabian Rießle, and Johannes Rydzek winning the 4 x 5-kilometer team event in 47:57.3.
The Germans combined for the best jumping score of 11 teams and started the relay in first, 44 seconds ahead of Japan in second. Norway started 1:07 minutes back in fifth but rose to second place (+41.7), with Magnus Moan, Mikko Kokslein, Magnus Krog, and Jørgen Graabak. Moan raced them into third at the first exchange, then Kokslein secured second, which they held onto for the remaining two legs.
“It was our goal to ski a controlled race,” Germany’s Frenzel told ZDF. “Not really look at how the gap was developing, but just make our own race. And put up a little more pressure towards the end of each leg. That worked well, that was a wickedly cool team performance today. And I am just happy that we could put a little golden crown on the whole event today.”
“I think today you could see again that we all worked together and enjoyed the competition,” Rydzek added. “We were all happy about each other’s performance, and just rewarded ourselves for hard hard work.”
Austria started fourth, 1:05 behind Norway, and clinched bronze (+1:03.7) with Bernhard Gruber, Mario Seidl, Philipp Orter, and Paul Gerstgraser. Gruber initially raced them into second at the first exchange, but they relinquished one spot and hung on for third, ahead of Japan in fourth (+1:06).
Japan (Hideaki Nagai, Takehiro Watanabe, Yoshito Watabe, and Akito Watabe) jumped to second, but found themselves in fourth at every exchange.
Finland took fifth, Italy sixth, France seventh, and the U.S. eighth (+3:27.2) with Bryan Fletcher, Taylor Fletcher, Ben Berend, and Ben Loomis. The Americans started the race in seventh and were in sixth after the first two exchanges, but slipped to eighth on the third leg.
IBU Youth/Junior World Championships (Osrblie, Slovakia): Youth & junior pursuits
Four seems to be Chloe Levins’s lucky number. After a career breakthrough of fourth place in the pursuit at last year’s Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Lillehammer, Norway, the 18-year-old Vermonter raced to fourth in the youth women’s 7.5-kilometer pursuit on Sunday at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championships in Osrblie, Slovakia.
Italy’s Irene Lardschneider winning the youth women’s 7.5 k pursuit on Sunday for her second-straight gold at 2017 IBU Youth World Championships in Osrblie, Slovakia. (Photo: IBU)
Levins started the race in 11th and worked her way up to fourth with clean shooting in three stages. She missed two in the first prone but rebounded and held off Ukraine’s Khrystyna Dmytrenko by seven seconds for fourth place. Levins finished 1:55.5 minutes behind the winner, Italy’s Irene Lardschneider, who started the race first and held on for her second-straight gold medal despite four penalties (0+0+2+2), finishing in 26:57.1. France’s Lou Jeanmonnot-Laurent rose from fourth to second place with 19-for-20 shooting (0+0+1+0), and Italy’s Samuela Comola took bronze (+1:08.5) for the second-straight race with two misses (1+0+1+0).
Three U.S. women qualified for the pursuit, with Amanda Kautzer finishing 42nd (+6:16.2) after starting 59th and shooting 80 percent (1+0+2+1), and Grace Gilliland finishing 55th (+8:32.1) with six penalties (2+3+1+0).
Canada’s Shilo Rousseau followed in 54th (+9:02.1) with eight misses (3+1+2+2).
In the junior women’s 10 k pursuit, Canada’s Megan Bankes raced to 16th for the best finish for a North American in that race. The gold medalist in last week’s 12.5 k individual, Bankes finished 13th in Saturday’s sprint and thus started in that position, 1:25 out of first. She ended up 16th with four penalties (0+1+2+1) and finished 2:15.8 behind the winner, Russia’s Valeriia Vasnetcova, who started 24th and worked her way all the way up to first with clean shooting.
Vasnetcova was the only one to clean the four-stage pursuit on Sunday, and in doing so, she achieved her first gold of the championships and second of her career at Youth/Junior Worlds after her team won last year’s youth relay in Romania.
Coming off a sprint win, Italy’s Michela Carrara started first and took second at the finish, 10 seconds behind Vasnetcova with three misses (1+1+1+0). Norway’s Ingrid Tandrevold scored her second-straight medal as well, after starting second and finishing third (+10.8), with two penalties (0+0+1+1).
Canada’s Nadia Moser had her best result of the championships in 30th (+3:43.5), moving up one place after starting 31st, with three penalties (0+1+0+2). Emily Dickson finished 47th for the second-straight day (+6:29.9) with four penalties (1+0+1+2).
Siena Ellingson was the lone American to start after placing 18th in Saturday’s sprint. She finished 41st (+5:24.7) with seven misses (1+2+1+3).
In the junior men’s 12.5 k pursuit, Canada’s Pearce Hanna rocketed to 23rd after starting 47th, shooting 17-for-20 after cleaning the first two stages (0+0+1+2) for his first top 30 of the championships. Hanna finished 3:12 behind the winner, Russia’s Igor Malinovskii who picked up his second-straight gold.
Malinovskii started first and finished in 32:39.8, 13 seconds ahead of second place, with four penalties (0+1+2+1). Norway’s Sindre Pettersen took the silver medal after starting in eighth and posting the fastest course time to overcome five misses (2+1+1+1). Belarus’s Anton Smolski moved up from fourth at the start to reach the podium in third (+27.4) with five misses as well (0+0+3+2).
All four Canadian junior men qualified for the pursuit. Trevor Kiers led them in 39th (+5:13.3), after starting 48th, for his best result of the championships. Jules Burnotte placed 43rd (+5:35.3), up from 55th, for his best result as well, and Zachari Bolduc finished 57th (+8:18.3). Kiers missed five targets (2+0+1+2), Burnotte had seven misses (3+1+1+2), and Bolduc missed eight (2+3+2+1).
For the U.S., Cody Johnson finished 55th (+7:19.5) with nine penalties (2+1+2+4) and Travis Cooper 59th (+8:46.2) with eight misses (5+0+1+2).
In the youth men’s 10 k pursuit, the first race of the day on Sunday, two Canadians finished in the top 30, with Leo Grandbois in 22nd and Adam Runnalls in 27th.
For Grandbois, it was his first time outside the top 15 of the championships after he had won the youth men’s 12.5 k individual last Wednesday and finished 14th in Friday’s 7.5 k sprint. He had to ski six penalty loops on Sunday (0+2+2+2), dropping outside the top 20 after the third shooting. Grandbois finished 3:21.8 behind the winner, France’s Emilien Claude, who won the sprint as well to start the pursuit first.
Claude, who had four penalties (1+1+0+2) and finished in 29:22.4, held off Italy’s hard-charging Cedric Christille by 16 seconds after Christille shot just two penalties (0+0+1+1) to move up from fourth to second for his first medal in his first Youth World Championships. Germany’s Danilo Riethmüller rose from sixth to third place (+30.7) despite four misses (1+0+1+2). For the German, it was his second bronze of these championships after placing third in the 12.5 k individual.
Canada’s Runnalls moved up from 32nd at the start to 27th at the finish (+3:47.5) for his first top 30 of the championships. He had five penalties (1+3+1+0), but cleaned the last stage to move into the top 30.
Vasek Cervenka was the lone American to qualify in the youth men’s pursuit, and he moved up from 49th at the start to 30th (+3:52) with five penalties (1+1+1+2).
An American sandwich: U.S. Ski Team members Jessie Diggins (l) and Kikkan Randall (r) sharing the podium with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (c) after Falla won the women’s freestyle sprint at 2017 Nordic World Championships on Thursday in Lahti, Finland. Diggins placed second and Randall was third. Diggins and Randall are now tied for the most World Championships medals with three apiece. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
LAHTI, Finland — Three: that’s the magic number. On a historic night in Lahti on Thursday, three of the four U.S. women entered in the 2017 Nordic World Championships 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint advanced from their quarterfinals to the semifinals and eventually, the final.
Toeing the start line for the American triad was the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) Kikkan Randall, Jessie Diggins and Sophie Caldwell. Filling the final three spots were two Swedes — Hannah Falk and Ida Ingemarsdotter — as well as Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla.
Not making the cut was the week’s sprint favorite, Stina Nilsson. The young Swedish superstar had crashed while cornering the final turn in her semifinal, taking out Russia’s Natalia Matveeva and earning herself a yellow card and relegation to last in the heat. Randall and Caldwell, who were both in Nilsson’s semi, maneuvered around the spill to advance in second and third, respectively.
With no Nilsson, Sweden put its faith in Ingemarsdotter and Falk, while the U.S. comprised half of the field in the women’s final.
“That’s for sure the funnest final I have ever been a part of,” Randall said during a post-race press conference. “Before we went to the start we did a little team cheer … we had such good energy between the three of us.”
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (1) leading Sweden’s Hanna Falk (r) and Stina Nilsson (l) and American Kikkan Randall (10) during the first semifinal of the women’s 1.4 k freestyle sprint at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Falla went on to win the final for the first gold medal of the championships and Randall placed third overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Feeding off each other’s energy as they started the race, the Americans remained grouped together through the first climb toward the back of the pack. Meanwhile, Falla found herself skiing in the front by the time the finalists crested the top of the first hill.
“That’s my favorite tactic I am always using. If I am doubting or don’t know what to do, I take the lead and hope for the best,” Falla said during the press conference.
The Norwegian kept it that way for the remainder race, distancing herself by close to 10 meters by the top of the second climb. With one final descent to go, she had tightened her hold on the World Championships freestyle sprint title.
Leading the charge from behind was Ingemarsdotter. Diggins pressed closely behind to the Swede’s right, Randall to the left. Breathing down their necks were Caldwell and Falk.
By the bottom of the descent, Diggins had moved around the Swedish skier. Randall continued press from behind, but so, too, did Falk.
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla celebrates her gold medal in Thursday’s freestyle sprint ahead of Americans Jessie Diggins (19) and Kikkan Randall (r), who placed second and third, respectively, at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. The third U.S. woman in the final, Sophie Caldwell (second from r) finished sixth. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
In the final 100 meters, Falla staved off any attempts from Diggins, crossing first in a time of 3:02.34 minutes for the gold medal. Just 1.66 seconds back, Diggins claimed silver — her third World Championships medal and second individual silver.
Though she placed second in last year’s Lahti World Cup freestyle sprint, Diggins admitted that the 2017 event was not where she had planned to put her focus for the week.
“I was … targeting some other races this week,” the 25-year-old Diggins said during the press conference, noting that she has been feeling strong this year on the World Cup. She’s already won two individual races this season and placed second in the skiathlon Obsterdorf, Germany. At the start of Thursday’s sprint, she recalled thinking, ” ‘Why not? This could be my day.’ ”
Jessie Diggins (U.S. Ski team) during qualification on Thursday in the 1.4 k freestyle sprint at the Lahti World Championships. She qualified in 19th and went on to finished second overall for her second-career individual World Championships silver medal. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
The Minnesota native proved it was, with her second-place finish tying her for the most champs medals won by a U.S. woman. The other woman to have three? After capturing third place (+3.76) on Thursday, that would be Randall.
The U.S. Ski Team veteran and three-time Sprint World Cup winner, now has two individual World Championships medals, as well: a bronze on Thursday, a silver from the 2009 sprint in Liberec, and her 2013 freestyle team-sprint gold, which she earned with Diggins in Val di Fiemme, Italy.
“It was a slow start to the season, and it took a lot of patience,” Randall said of some of her earlier-season performances and whether those had her worried as she entered World Championships. “But the shape was building and building, and I hoped to find the best shape here, and it worked!”
This year’s world medal, however, is a bit different for the 34-year-old Alaskan. It’s one she’s won as a mom.
The U.S. Ski Team’s Kikkan Randall lays it down during the women’s 1.4 k freestyle sprint qualifier on Thursday at Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland, where she qualified 10th and went on to claim bronze in the final. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
“I think it’s very encouraging to know that it’s only been 10 months [since I had a baby], and I have been able to come back to top form,” Randall said. “I was able to train well through my pregnancy, and come back to training pretty soon after the birth. So it’s great to see everything come together here.”
Sweden was shut out of the medals; Falk placed fourth (+3.91) and Ingemarsdotter finished fifth (+4.42).
Caldwell once again performed on the big stage. In front of a packed Lahti Ski Stadium and a global television audience, the 26-year-old Vermonter appeared unfazed. In fact she’s been in this spot before — she placed sixth at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in the skate sprint. Déjà vu all over again? Not exactly. But in Sochi, the sprint final did feature two athletes Caldwell faced in Lahti: Falla and Ingemarsdotter. And if familiarity breeds comfort, racing against teammates Diggins and Randall positioned her against known athletes, a book she’s read hundreds of times either in practice or in competition.
Caldwell, teammates with Diggins at the Stratton Mountain School in Vermont, qualified 13th. And her first pass through the media zone after placing second in her quarterfinal was the look of hyper-focus.
By the time she moved onto the final as a lucky loser — after deftly angling around Nilsson and Matveeva — a grin broke through.
Sophie Caldwell (U.S. Ski Team) racing to 13th in the women’s freestyle sprint qualifier on Thursday at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. She went on to reach the final, where she placed sixth to tie her career best at a world championship (actually an Olympics, after placing sixth in the skate sprint in Sochi). (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
Caldwell placed sixth in the final, 5.37 seconds in back of Falla after qualifying 13th, for her best result in her third World Championships.
“Today was an incredible day for the team. I don’t know if we ever had three people in the final,” Caldwell said. “And to have Jessie and Kikkan on the podium is amazing.”
Caldwell acknowledged the personal significance of the evening’s sprint. “It was a great day for me, this is the first final I made this year,” she said. “And I had strong feelings throughout the day. I feel like I felt better as the day went on, with the exception of the final where my legs got a little tired.”
Of the four U.S. women that started Thursday’s sprint, all four qualified for the heats. Ida Sargent made the top 30 in 27th, behind her teammates Randall (10th), Caldwell (13th), and Diggins (19th). Sargent went on to finish fifth in her quarterfinal (4.6 seconds behind Matveeva, who won that heat) for 24th overall.
“I am just really proud of the athletes,” U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Chris Grover said. “All of the athletes that were competing today, all of the athletes on the U.S. program that were not competing today that were cheering from in front of the television this evening. … I am really proud of the team that we have collected here, in terms of the service team, and coaching team, medical and support team … and everyobdy that is surrounding that for USA.”
Kikkan Randall (l) and Jessie Diggins celebrate their bronze and silver medals, respectively, in the women’s individual freestyle sprint on Thursday, the first day of 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
“For us this was definitely a target event,” he explained.
In five consecutive visits to Lahti, the U.S. has reached the podium in every World Cup skate sprint. Andy Newell started the trend back in 2008, but Randall got the ball rolling for the women’s program in 2013 and 2014, winning the skate sprint there both years. Also in 2014, Caldwell reached the podium for the first time in third place. In 2015, Randall scored another Lahti podium in third (while Diggins was just off it in fourth), and last season, Diggins placed second.
So you can say freestyle sprint, especially in Lahti, have been the U.S. team’s jam for some time.
“It’s been a great race historically for us,” Grover said. “When we looked ahead at what our best medal-potential races were for the championships, obviously skate sprints have been one of the best events for us for years in general, but in particular for these championships, we really targeted this day.”
Canada entered three women, all members of its U25 Team, with Dahria Beatty placing 37th and missing the top 30 necessary to qualify for the heats by 3.67 seconds. Cendrine Browne finished 48th (+20.42) and Katherine Stewart-Jones 58th (+26.29) out of 107 women in the qualifier.
— Harald Zimmer, Chelsea Little, and Alex Kochon contributed
Kikkan Randall (l) and Jessie Diggins (r) hold the American flag during a victory ski down the finishing lanes to celebrate their bronze and silver medals, respectively, in the women’s individual freestyle sprint on Thursday, the first day of 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Ahead of them, Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla celebrates gold. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson celebrates her 10th World Cup victory in two seasons (and seventh one this year) in the women’s 1.3 k freestyle sprint on Saturday in Otepää, Estonia. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
At 23, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson has nailed a business-like approach to World Cup starts. Standing 5-foot-9, she appears to tower over most of her competitors, and before her signature races (sprints) she appears deep in contemplation, definitely in the zone. During those races, she’s usually the one setting the pace, and afterward, she’s almost always celebrating at the finish.
So far this season, Nilsson has won seven World Cup races — including today’s freestyle sprint in Otepää, Estonia. Four of those were sprints, three of them skate sprints. She also established herself as an all-around threat at last month’s Tour de Ski, winning the 10-kilometer skiathlon, 10 k freestyle pursuit and 10 k classic mass start — nearly half of the stages.
And on Saturday at the pre-World Championships World Cup in Otepää, Nilsson proved she’ll be tough to stop in her quest for World Championships gold next week in Lahti, Finland. She previously racked up three silver medals at 2015 World Championships at home in Falun, Sweden. Two of those were in team events, one was in the classic sprint.
This year’s World Championships begin in earnest on Thursday, Feb. 23, with a freestyle sprint. And considering Nilsson has won the last three World Cup skate sprints she’s competed in (and has a career total of six skate-sprint wins, putting her ahead of Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla with five), she couldn’t be more of a favorite.
It didn’t come easy on Saturday, with temperatures in the mid-30’s Fahrenheit on a brand-new sprint course in Otepää.
“Every year we go to Estonia we joke about what the course will look like,” U.S. Ski Team Women’s Coach Matt Whitcomb said on the phone Saturday. “It’s actually not making fun of them, it’s admiring how they are trying to adapt their terrain to the direction to sprinting has gone.”
The men’s 1.6 k and women’s 1.3 k courses are harder, he explained, “and what they are trying to do is have something that will stand up to a classic sprint, even though today was skating with world champs coming up.”
Pair that with increasingly mushy snow, and you have a day where the finals came down to a slog-fest.
“There was no glide in the final in that [last] hill,” American Jessie Diggins, the lone North American to reach the final on Saturday, explained on the phone after. “It was like Alpe Cermis for me.” (Alpe Cermis is the final climb of the Tour de Ski.)
The Otepää World Cup women’s freestyle sprint podium on Saturday in Estonia, with Swedish winner Stina Nilsson (c), Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (l) in second and Heidi Weng (r) in third. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Nilsson, who had put herself in a position at the front or very close to it to win her quarterfinal, semifinal and ultimately the final, even said it was hard.
“There were difficult snow conditions on the track and it was hard to beat Falla,” she said, according to an Otepää press release.
In just about every World Cup sprint this season, Falla has been the other woman to beat. And in the last four skate sprints, including today, she’s been second. Before that, Falla won a skate sprint in Davos, Switzerland, where Nilsson missed qualifying in an uncharacteristic 31st. And in the two classic sprints at the start of the season, Falla finished second (behind Nilsson in the first race and her Norwegian teammate Heidi Weng in the other).
Notably, the 5-foot-3 Falla has placed in the top two in 11 out of the last 12 World Cup skate sprints she’s contested. With seven individual podiums this season and all but one putting her on the second step, you can imagine how hungry Falla — the 2014 Olympic freestyle sprint gold medalist — is for another win.
She won her quarterfinal on Saturday and placed second in her semifinal, 0.42 seconds behind Nilsson, before chasing Nilsson once again in the final. The two broke away on the final downhill, and Falla tried to make a move on the last tight corner to get around the Swede, but alas — another second place. Nilsson racked up her 10th individual World Cup victory in 2:49.96 minutes, and Falla was 0.27 seconds shy in second.
“In the final I did not have as good start as I hoped,” Falla said, according to a FIS press release. “It was difficult to find a good position. On the last climb I could follow Stina. Today’s second place is a good sign that my shape is getting better.”
Four U.S. Women Qualify in Top 12
Nilsson started the day by qualifying in first on Otepää’s one-lap sprint course, 0.6 seconds ahead of Norway’s Weng in second and 2.55 seconds ahead of American Kikkan Randall in third. Four U.S. women qualified in the top 12, with Sophie Caldwell in fourth (+2.6), Ida Sargent 10th (+3.47) and Diggins 12th (+ 3.93). Falla qualified seventh (+3.21).
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (1) leads Norway’s Kathrine Rolsted Harsem and American Sophie Caldwell (far left, not shown) around a tight corner in the stadium of the women’s 1.3 k freestyle sprint at the Otepää World Cup in Estonia. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Wearing bib 1, Nilsson went on to win her quarterfinal by 0.62 seconds over Caldwell before doing more of the same in the first semifinal, where she beat Falla. Early in the first quarterfinal, Caldwell found herself in third behind Norway’s Kathrine Rolsted Harsem and Nilsson, which was exactly where she wanted to be.
“I didn’t want to be leading in my quarter, but I wanted a clean start and then to settle into the front/middle part of the pack,” Caldwell explained in an email. “I tried to stay calm and conserve energy where I could to be able to have a strong finish. I wanted to hang as tight as possible to the leaders up the steep hill and over the top because I knew the draft could come into play. I think I executed my quarter just how I wanted to and my legs felt good enough to have a strong final stretch and finish 2nd.”
Caldwell edged Harsem by 0.09 seconds in a photo finish for second, and both advanced to the semifinal when Harsem earned a lucky loser spot. Nilsson and Caldwell raced in the first semifinal, where Nilsson led into the first of the two major climbs. Once again skiing in the middle of the pack, Caldwell stumbled about halfway up and had to work to catch back up to the group.
“I think I poled between my legs or on my ski or something and took myself out,” Caldwell wrote. “I recovered pretty quickly and was able to close the gap over the top of the first hill.”
By the time they reached the second climb, Norway’s Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen had moved into first. Nilsson followed her in second over the top while Falla hung close in third.
American Sophie Caldwell (4) and Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (8) chasing Norway’s Kathrine Rolsted Harsem (second from l) and Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (r) in the quarterfinal of the women’s World Cup freestyle sprint in Otepää, Estonia. Caldwell edged Harsem in a photo finish for second, behind Nilsson in first, and all four advanced to the semifinals. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
“Going up the second hill, the top three opened up a little gap and I was behind Ingvild [Flugstad Østberg of Norway] and we were unfortunately just far enough back so that we didn’t benefit a ton from the draft,” Caldwell explained. “There are a few things I would do differently if I were to do it again (namely not to fall), but I was really encouraged by my energy out there today.”
Caldwell finished fifth in that semifinal, 1.83 seconds behind Nilsson, who had reclaimed the lead at the bottom of the long downhill into the stadium. Falla automatically advanced to the final in second, and Jacobsen advanced as a lucky loser in third (+0.75). Østberg took fourth (+1.64), just ahead of Caldwell, and neither advanced to the final. That put Østberg in seventh and Caldwell 10th overall on the day.
Diggins Wins Quarter + Semifinal
Meanwhile, Diggins — the winner of her quarterfinal — won the second semifinal as well, beating out Weng by 1.21 seconds. Sweden’s Hanna Falk placed third (+2.52) behind Diggins, Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter was fourth (+3.8), Randall fifth (+13.3) after a late crash, and Harsem sixth (+21.37) after face planting on the last downhill in a separate incident from Randall.
Diggins automatically advanced to the final along with Weng, and Falk made it as a lucky loser.
In the final, Nilsson again took charge out of the start, while Weng clung closely to her in second. Jacobsen once again took the lead, this time up the first climb, but Nilsson made her move back into first by the final steep uphill. Falla chased Nilsson over the top, followed by Weng, Jacobsen and Diggins — in that order — on the descent. Having dropped everyone else on the last hill, Nilsson and Falla raced toward the finish line as a unit. Nilsson stayed ahead, Falla took second, Weng third (+3.75), Jacobsen fourth (+4.91), Diggins fifth (+6.82), and Falk sixth (+21.73).
“I could not have done it any better, so I’m very happy,” Nilsson told the Otepää organizers. “The course was very good and I would like to come back and race here again.”
Jessie Diggins (12) racing to first in her quarterfinal, ahead of Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter (directly behind), who finished second in that heat, in the World Cup freestyle sprint in Otepää, Estonia. Slovenia’s U23 leader Anamarija Lampic (l) finished third in that heat. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)
While Nilsson and Falla had tested their tactics against one another in the semifinal, Diggins didn’t meet either of them until the final. The 25-year-old American had previously won her quarterfinal by leading from start to finish, then her semifinal by capitalizing on a slingshot draft on the last downhill.
“In my quarter, I just wanted to stay out of trouble,” Diggins explained. “It’s a course where it’s hard to pass and with deep snow and icy spots, I saw a lot of potential for danger, so I wanted to stay way out anything that my happen. The best way to ensure that is to get way out in front. And it burns a lot of energy and I paid for it later in the final.”
She added that the biggest hill — the last, steep one that Diggins called the “headwall” — proved especially challenging because it required a different technique, namely jump skating.
In the semifinal, Diggins said she got stuck behind the wrong person on the way up that climband came out of it in fourth. Meanwhile, Randall had taken the lead by the top.
“I was actually proud of myself for mentally not counting myself out,” Diggins said. “Just saying, ‘OK, I’ll use the slingshot, downhill’s a big strength of mine, so I’m just going to get back in it.’ ”
That’s exactly what she did. Diggins shot wide around the last corner and surged into first, ahead of Randall, Weng, and Falk. Coming out of that corner and toward the finishing stretch, Randall lost her balance on the way up a small hill over a tunnel and fell out of contention.
“Right after Jessie passed me I was taking the inside line into the corner and then lost my balance on an ice patch and my weight went out the back,” Randall wrote in an email. “Thought I almost saved it for a split second and then my skis came out from under me. It was totally my fault but a real bummer. I was feeling strong and ready to be in the final.”
Meanwhile, Diggins gained some confidence with her semifinal win.
“It was a good moment for me realizing that I can execute good tactics. I don’t just have to put my head down,” she said.
In the final, Diggins wasn’t sure of the best move on the final uphill.
“I had this moment of hesitation at the bottom as to who do I follow? Do I follow her? It’s kind of like you are picking your security line at the airport, which line to I get in to go the fastest?” she said. “I think that moment of hesitation definitely cost me, but then when they went, it was really quick and I was not technically able to go. I was just like stepping as hard as I could, but I think I needed to be more like a hop skate in order to go. After that, I just worked on preserving my spot.”
After being gapped, she said it was tough mentally to finish the race in a solid position.
“I was just trying to work on pushing, I really need to practice for Lahti, so get in there,” she said.
Diggins said she has a “pretty ambitious race schedule” planned for Lahti World Championships, and while she couldn’t say which races she’ll do, she intended to sit out Sunday’s 10 k classic individual start to rest up for next week.
“To pull it off, I need to come into it quite rested,” Diggins, a 2013 freestyle team sprint champion and 2015 individual silver medalist, said of her World Championships goals.
Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team) racing in the heats at the World Cup freestyle sprint in Otepää, Estonia. She reached the semifinals for ninth overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
While Diggins ended up fifth overall and Caldwell 10th on Saturday, Randall had her second-best individual result of the season in ninth, and it all started with her being the third-fastest qualifier.
“That qualification would have beat some of her performances from when she was at the top of her game,” Whitcomb said. “I can’t help to wonder if she is back at the top of her game.”
“To be able to lay down a fast qualifier like that gives me confidence that I’ve made it one step closer to the kind of race form I had when I was contending for wins and podiums in every skate sprint,” Randall wrote.
In her quarterfinal, Randall initially finished third, 0.3 seconds behind Jacobsen, who won that heat. Russia’s Natalia Matveeva finished second, but was relegated to last (and 30th overall) for obstructing Randall. According to Randall, she experienced two instances of obstruction in that heat.
“Coming into the stadium I tried to make a move on the outside and Matveeva abruptly moved over in front of me as I came up alongside her,” she wrote. “So I reset and tried to set myself up on the final turn. But then she cut across me again and I lost all my momentum.”
Randall asked her coaches to file a protest. After reviewing the video, the jury deemed Matveeva’s first cut-off grounds for a penalty. Thus, Randall advanced to the semifinals in second place.
In her semifinal, Randall resolved to be more aggressive to ensure better positioning.
“Even after a not-so-great start again, I made a push to get up closer to the front,” she wrote. “I skied the downhill 180 corner pretty well and got my own lane up the steep climb and was able to make a move over the top. Jessie followed me and came flying out of my draft as we came toward the stadium.
“I was definitely bummed have missed out on the chance to test myself against the best in the final today but I am really encouraged with how I felt all day,’ she added. “I learned some good tactical lessons and I am really looking forward to another chance in a few days!”
Randall was listed to start Sunday’s 10 k classic.
Also listed for Sunday’s race are Sargent and Bjornsen (among other U.S. women), who placed 13th and 20th overall, respectively, on Saturday. After qualifying in 10th, Sargent looked poised to win her quarterfinal before she ultimately finished third (0.35 seconds behind Falla) and did not advance.
“For the quarterfinal my strategy was to stay near the front and stay out of trouble and try to stay in contact going into the downhill,” Sargent wrote in an email, adding that she wanted to stick with Falla.
But feeling especially excited and strong, she decided to go for it and take the lead soon after the start. On the last climb, Falla attacked over the top and led into the downhill. Sargent followed, taking a few extra skate steps to rein Falla back in.
“Sometimes I don’t think I work the graduals enough so I made an effort to push a little longer going into the downhill and I think that gave me the power to pass Maiken on the downhill,” Sargent described. “I was proud of myself for holding my line and and skiing with confidence in the heat which is another thing that I’m working on But then unfortunately my legs were really flooded in the finish stretch and I lost the crucial time there. So I feel I’m really close but just need to keep working to have that extra couple tenths of a second.”
“10th in the qualifier is definitely one of my best if not my best qualifiers for a full World Cup field,” she acknowledged. “… We had insanely fast skis today so the techs did some magic work and that was a huge help making it such a great day for the team.”
In the same quarterfinal as Randall, Bjornsen finished fourth, 2.82 seconds behind Jacobsen. In an email, Bjornsen wrote that her qualifier was slower than usual, “I think due to searching for my sprint gears and seemingly making the wrong ski selection.
“I was looking forward to the heats, because I know my energy is feeling well, I just needed to find that speed,” she added. “I had a great start, and tried to stay light in those really deep snow conditions. As we rounded the far side of the course and headed back up the really steep climb there, I tripped over some snow, and really got bogged down. It was one of those ‘wall climbs’, and I seem to need some work on that particular grade. That is where I lost contact with the leaders, and then didn’t manage to find the steam to come back to them unfortunately.”
Bjornsen explained that Saturday’s race was her team’s qualifier for the World Championships sprint, “and I unfortunately wasn’t able to make it,” she wrote. “I haven’t quite found my groove that I know I am capable of with sprinting yet this year, but I keep looking forward to it every time I try, because I think it is a small adjustment that I am on a search for. On the other hand, I still feel really good about my energy and fitness right now, so I am looking forward to tomorrow with great excitement. An individual classic 10k is a great race for me, and I can’t wait to take on this challenging course!”
Canada’s Beatty 29th
Canada’s Dahria Beatty nabbed the last qualifying spot in 30th and went on to finish sixth in her quarterfinal, 9 seconds behind Weng (who won that heat) for 29th overall. Beatty last competed at U23 World Championships in Utah, where she recorded three top-20 results. In the two weeks since, the 22-year-old Canadian U25 Team member has been in Canmore, Davos, and Otepää since Thursday. After this weekend, Beatty will travel with the team to Lahti to compete at senior World Championships.
“The course was a really hard one, the snow was soft which made it even more challenging and the final climb is really steep,” she wrote of Saturday’s race. “I managed to survive the steep pitch in my qualification but in the heats it had softened a bunch and that’s where the pack really got away from me. Something else to add to the list of things to work on!
“I was really happy to be back in the top-30 my first race back in Europe,” Beatty added. “My legs have been feeling a bit heavy the past week with all the travel but this was a really solid place to start the next period of racing and I think my body will be feeling all ready to go by next Thursday. I am confident in my fitness right now and I am really looking forward to experiencing my first World Championships!”
Canada had two others in the women’s race, with Cendrine Browne placing 48th and Katherine Stewart-Jones 49th.
The U.S. had a total of seven women compete on Saturday, with Chelsea Holmes and Rosie Brennan finishing 58th and 60th, respectively. Of those seven, four qualified in the top 12 and five finished the day in the top 20.
“It is incredibly competitive out there…,” Whitcomb said. “I think it means that we have a team that is operating at peak form and is ready for the championships.”
The men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay podium at 2017 IBU World Championships on Saturday in Hochfilzen, Austria, with Russia (c) in first, France (l) in second, and Austria (r) in third. (Photo: IBU World Champs/Twitter)
IBU World Championships (Hochfilzen, Austria): Men’s relay
[UPDATED] Russia’s four-man relay team hit nearly every target on Saturday, using a total of just three spares to clean 40 targets, and stayed out of the penalty loop to capture gold in the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria.
It was the last team event and the second-to-last day of the championships, with the men’s and women’s elite mass starts remaining on Sunday. Anton Shipulin anchored the Russians to first, 5.8 seconds ahead of France’s Martin Fourcade, after Shipulin cleaned his prone stage and used one spare in standing to hold onto the lead his team built. Fourcade cleaned both stages to secure silver for his team, and Austria took bronze (+20.1) with anchor Dominik Landertinger.
After Russia’s Alexey Volkov used one spare in each of his shooting stages and came through the exchange in seventh, Maxim Tsvetkov and Anton Babikov both cleaned without any spares to bring the team into fourth, then first, respectively.
France’s first leg Jean-Guillaume Béatrix shot clean as well and tagged Quentin Fillon Maillet in second. Fillon Maillet then needed one spare in prone, but cleaned standing to take the lead, tagging Simon Desthieux in first. Desthieux used three spares in prone, but avoided the penalty lap before tagging Fourcade in third, 12 seconds behind Austria in second. Fourcade closed the gap and clinched second, and France combined for a total of just four spare rounds.
Austria achieved bronze in front of a home crowd with Daniel Mesotitsch, Julian Eberhard, Simon Eder, and Landertinger combining for 10 spares and no penalties.
Finishing 8.5 seconds after Austria, Germany placed fourth. Italy was a minute and a half out of first in fifth, Ukraine took sixth (+1:41.3), and the U.S. placed seventh (+1:50.5) with Lowell Bailey, Leif Nordgren, Tim Burke, and Sean Doherty. Bailey initially put the team in fourth at the first exchange, 12.4 seconds out of first, then Nordgren tagged Burke in sixth, 17 seconds behind. Burke used four spares to clean and tagged Doherty in seventh, about a minute back. The Americans used a total of eight spares but had no penalties.
Canada finished 13th (+3:35.5) with Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Macx Davies, and Brendan Green. They were 39 seconds out of first and in 12th place after Christian Gow’s first leg, then slipped to 14th before Davies moved them back into 12th by the last exchange. Canada had a total of 10 spares and zero penalties.
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Otepää, Estonia): Freestyle sprint
In the last World Cup before the upcoming 2017 International Ski Federation (FIS) Nordic Ski World Championships next week in Lahti, Finland, five U.S. women qualified in the top 12 of the women’s 1.3-kilometer freestyle sprint, and Jessie Diggins reached the final on Saturday in Otepää, Estonia.
Diggins started the day by placing 12th in the qualifier, 3.93 seconds behind Sweden’s Stina Nilsson in first (and her U.S. teammates Kikkan Randall in third, Sophie Caldwell in fourth, and Ida Sargent in 10th) before winning her quarterfinal and semifinal. In the final, Diggins wad gapped by the leaders on the final climb and finished fifth (+6.82).
The women’s freestyle sprint podium at the Otepaa World Cup on Saturday in Estonia, with Swedish winner Stina Nilsson (c), Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (l) in second and Heidi Weng (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
Nilsson won the final in a time of 2:49.96 minutes, just ahead of Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (+0.27) who lost her balance and her speed with it on the last corner. The two had broken away from third place and Nilsson led into the final straightaway and held Falla off for the win. Norway took second through fourth with Heidi Weng in third place (+3.75) and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen in fourth (+4.91).
Randall initially finished her quarterfinal in third position and would have been out, but advanced when Russia’s Natalia Matveeva was relegated to last for obstruction. In the same semifinal as Diggins, Randall fell cresting a small hill over a tunnel and finished fifth (+13.30) for ninth overall on the day.
Caldwellplaced second in her quarterfinal heat behind the day’s winner Nilsson, then stumbled halfway up a climb early in her semifinal, but stuck with the pack to finish fifth (+1.83) for 10th overall.
Sargent raced in the same quarterfinal as Falla and narrowly missed advancing to the semifinal in third place, fewer than 0.2 seconds behind Switzerland’s Laurien van der Graaff in second and 0.35 seconds behind Falla, who won that heat. Sargent placed 13th on the day.
Sadie Bjornsen qualified 25th and finished fourth (+2.82) in the same quarterfinal as Randall for the 25th overall.
Canada’s Dahria Beatty also qualified for the sprint heats in 30th place, and finished sixth in her quarterfinal for 29th overall.
Also for Canada, Cendrine Browne finished the qualification in 48th place and Katherine Stewart-Jones was one position behind in 49th.
Also for the U.S., distance specialists Chelsea Holmes and Rosie Brennan placed 58th and 60th, respectively.
The men’s freestyle sprint podium on Saturday at the World Cup in Otepaa, Estonia, with Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (c) taking his first World Cup win, Norway’s Finn Hågen Krogh (l) in second, and Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
In the men’s 1.6-kilometer sprint, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo achieved the first World Cup victory of his career in a time of 3:06.53 minutes, holding onto a lead he had created with an attack right out of the start gate in the final. His teammate Finn Hågen Krogh placed second (+0.60), taking the inside lane in the last turn to push reigning Tour de Ski winner Sergey Ustiugov of Russia to third (+1.0).
For the North Americans, it was a day of narrow misses.
For the U.S., Simi Hamilton started his race day by qualifying in seventh position, and placed second in his quarterfinal. He then closely missed out on the final after placing fourth in his semifinal in a four-way sprint photo finish (+0.33), just 0.04 seconds behind the third place and lucky loser time of Norway’s Håvard Solås Taugbøl, who advanced. Hamilton ended the day in eighth overall.
Canadian World Cup Team member Alex Harvey snuck into the sprint heats in 29th place in the qualifier, then just missed out on advancing from his quarterfinal in a photo finish for second with Great Britain’s Andrew Young, who took it by 0.04 seconds. Harvey finished third in that heat, 0.6 behind Italy’s Federico Pellegrino, for 15th for the day. Young went on to finish sixth in his semifinal for 12th overall, and Pellegrino advanced as a lucky loser from the same semifinal and was fourth in the final (+4.77).
American Andy Newell qualified 16th and finished sixth (+1.89) in his quarterfinal for 27th overall.
Canada’s Len Valjas missed qualifying for the heats in 40th place, as did his teammate Devon Kershaw in 50th.
American Erik Bjornsen was 53rd, and for Canada, Jesse Cockney 54th and Knute Johnsgaard 56th. In his World Cup debut, Benjamin Lustgarten placed 64th in the qualifier.
Canada’s Alex Harvey (l) and Len Valjas celebrate their World Cup freestyle team sprint win on Sunday in Toblach, Italy. It was the first team-sprint victory for Canada since 2011 World Championships. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)
It’s been a year since the last World Cup freestyle team sprint. That event went down in Planica, Slovenia. Historically, the men’s skate team sprint has been a revolving door when it comes to the podium’s top step. According to the International Ski Federation (FIS), the last seven World Cup skate team sprints were won by seven different nations.
Add an eighth nation to that list: Canada.
On Sunday in Toblach, Italy, the Canadian duo of Alex Harvey and Len Valjas once again got an opportunity for some grandstanding air-guitar: a celebratory tradition it seems when the Canadians take the win. Harvey and Valjas won the 6 x 1.3-kilometer freestyle team sprint in 16:02.1 minutes. As the times back suggest, no team was able to pull away. Occasionally one nation shot off the front, trying to break the chain of drafting skiers, but that tactic proved fruitless. With Toblach’s undulating draft-friendly course, the chase pack would eventually glide up tight onto the skis of any athlete trying to make a break.
Here’s how the podium rounded out. Sweden I, comprised of Karl-Johan Westberg and Oskar Svensson, placed second (+0.53). Dietmar Nöckler and Federico Pellegrino of Italy I were third (+0.65).
As the times back to Harvey and Valjas suggest, it was a no-margin-for-error race; fourth through 11th place were separated by a little more than three seconds. So after five exchanges, where one skier tags the other for another two-lap 1.3 k leg, the U.S. team, with Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell, were in it: they finished sixth (+2.62).
Harvey + Valjas
Just one week ago, Harvey finished the Tour de Ski in seventh overall, a career best in the annual multi-stage event. And just days ago, Sunday’s win might have been off his radar.
“If you had asked me that two days ago, it’s surprising. I felt really good yesterday,” Harvey explained on the phone Sunday. “My qualification was my best qualification in two years.”
“I had a lot of speed, a lot of punch yesterday,” Harvey added. “Then I was like, ‘OK, maybe we can do something in the team sprint.’ ”
Canada’s Lenny Valjas (in red) en route to his first World Cup victory in the men’s freestyle team sprint in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Sunday’s win was the first World Cup victory for Valjas, Harvey’s teammate on the Canadian World Cup A-team. It was also the first win for Harvey and Valjas together in a team sprint. Harvey said the pair came into the day with little on-the-ground practice, but they had discussed their exchanges beforehand.
“We did not practice, actually, but we talked about it,” Harvey said. “Most of the time, after the pre-race meeting, it’s always the same; people say, ‘Don’t stress it. You can’t win the race with the exchange, but you can lose it, if it’s a bad one.’ So, we told each other, ‘Let’s not f- up, but if we can, let’s try and get position in the exchange.’ Like, why not? It’s part of the race.”
The Canadians executed their verbally mapped-out plan: they kept to the back and side of the exchange zone, and efficiently communicated when to accelerate once the tag was made.
“We made it clear what we wanted to do, and what we would say. Like, if I said your name and yell, ‘Go, go, go!’ that means you can go full gas, and I’ll still be able to touch you,” Harvey said of their exchange plan. “That’s half a second here, half a second there, and sometimes it’s two positions, and on a course that’s turny like this, two positions for free is a big difference.”
For Valjas, the victory marked his sixth-career podium on the World Cup. Four of those podiums, including Sunday’s win, came in sprints. His last podium came four years ago.
“This is unreal,” Valjas, 28, told the International Ski Federation (FIS) in a televised, post-race interview. “Honestly, we were hoping for a good result today, but I had no idea it was going to be this good.”
He described Sunday’s race as crowded. For this season, FIS expanded the team sprint finals from 10 to 15 teams.
“The final, there’s a lot of guys who go out,” Valjas explained on the phone. “[We] just kept ourselves out in the top half of the group in the top six or seven. Otherwise you just have so much traffic and it was on my last leg of my final, I got a little boxed in on the big climb, and I was making contact with people’s poles and skis and, instead of trying to make a move and potentially crashing, just doing everything I could to ski smart and to keep my skis off other people’s skis.”
That patience paid off. Other teams led throughout the race, including Sweden II, Norway II, Finland II, Norway I, and France I.
“The goal was to stay close to the front, but never in the lead because there was no point,” Harvey said of the team’s on-course strategy. “You could see the Norwegians on Lenny’s second leg in the final — the two guys gapped the field a little bit. But then it comes back in the downhill, and that surge, it takes it out of you because the recovery is so short in the team sprint, so it’s about positioning yourself in the best way possible while saving energy for the last lap.”
The fifth exchange, when Valjas tagged Harvey for the final leg, it was still early, but maybe time to tune the air guitars.
“I think it was around sixth place when I came around the corner … and out of the exchange. Alex had a great lane on the left, too,” Valjas recalled. He actually tagged off in eighth, but just 2.1 seconds out of first, it was close enough.
“[Alex] made a quick burst leaving the exchange and passed three guys right there and moved into a contending position,” Valjas said.
Respect the power of the mustache: Canadian Alex Harvey celebrates as he anchors his team to a World Cup freestyle team sprint win on Sunday in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)
Harvey was ready to capitalize. Having watched other nations take flyers off the front, he had reserves. Harvey skied the fastest final leg, moving into third at the base of the last climb then leading over the top. It was a risky move, staying in first from the final descent down into the stadium and all the way into the looping finishing stretch. Nobody on Sunday had won from that position before, having become victims of the draft, but Harvey didn’t let that stop him from leading.
“Look at those, look at those,” he said, pointing to his skis when FIS asked how he pulled off the win from that position. “The wax techs did a good job and we had good skis.”
While several teams scurried for the remaining spots on the podium behind him, the Canadian crossed the line looking relaxed and grooming his mustache for the cameras.
“I’m feeling good, but I had a really good teammate,” Harvey told FIS.
With 2017 World Championships beginning late next month, Harvey and Valjas are likely eyeing the classic team sprint there.
“Today was an amazing performance by those two, and I think it’s going to give them a really good boost for the world champs,” Canadian World Cup coach Ivan Babikov said from his home in Canmore, Alberta. “It’s a pretty stacked calendar [at World Championships] especially for Alex, who can be podium potential in every race. He wants to do everything, but sometimes you just have to be smart, and focus on the things he feels strongly about. Lot’s can change with the time, too. We’ll be looking forward to world champs, and try to plan it out perfectly, so enough energy through the whole World Championship.”
Hamilton, Newell in It Until the End
Canada’s Alex Harvey (13) leading American Simi Hamilton (15) among others in the men’s 6 x 1.3 k freestyle team sprint on Sunday at the World Cup in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)
For the U.S. men’s team, Sunday was also a day to unkink and de-rust the team sprint tactics and techniques. Hamilton and Newell combined for fifth in their semifinal, one place behind Valjas and Harvey in fourth in that heat.
Hamilton was coming off a second-place finish in Saturday’s skate sprint. He explained his initial sensations for the day were bland, as he spent over three hours after Saturday’s sprint navigating doping control in a cold, restricted area, absent equipment for a proper warmdown.
Despite feeling sharp in the semifinal, Newell crashed just before the tag zone for the first exchange in the final.
“It was unfortunate that I took an early, hard crash right before the tag zone on my first [leg],” Newell said on the phone. “I was kind of spun like a top and landed right on my butt. I was able to get up pretty fast, and sprint towards the tag zone, but we were still in last.”
Also on that first leg, Newell received a yellow card for obstruction. He explained that he stepped on another racer’s ski on a downhill section of course. The infraction did not cause a crash, but it did give Newell a written reprimand. Accumulating two yellow cards in a season leads to a disqualification (although, according to the FIS rulebook, “Written reprimands given during the season are not valid in the WSC [World Ski Championships] and OWG [Olympic Winter Games] periods. Written reprimands given during WSC or OWG are valid until the end of the season.”)
After that initial tag, Hamilton gunned it. He skied the fastest second leg, keeping the team from losing ground. Newell and Hamilton kept in the hunt, conserving energy, maybe losing a spot here, then gaining two there. Hamilton tagged Newell in 12th.
“My right glute took a hard hit, and it wasn’t a super-easy course to pass on either, so I think we spent some energy trying to get around people, but even still, we were right in it by the last lap,” Newell said.
Despite the spill or less-than-perfect exchanges, the U.S. was never out of it. Hamilton brought them into ninth and 4.2 seconds out of first after the fourth of six legs, and Newell slipped back slightly to 11th, just 4.5 seconds back. Finally, Hamilton’s second-fastest final leg time put them in sixth at the finish.
“We are both quick on our feet and we’re adaptable and we figure things out like that pretty quickly, but I think, for sure, we will spend some time just working on our tags to make them a little more crisp,” Hamilton said on the phone. “At the same time, you can’t dial in just one way you are planning on doing things in the future because things are constantly changing. You never know if the race is going to be at a pretty ‘pedestrian’ pace off the bat and you might be tagging in the very front of the pack, or if it is a really hot pace, you might be closer to the back. You just have to change things on the fly a little bit. I think that is something that we are both really good at, just being able to adapt to kind of a changing environment.”
The shifting nature of this race, when most teams at one point either seemed way out of it or right in it, was the type of changing environment Hamilton referred to.
The next team sprint prior to World Championships will take place Feb. 5 at the World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea. Hamilton and Newell plan on contesting that event.
Russia’s Matveeva 2-2 in Toblach; U.S. Women 10th
On the women’s side, race organizers were most likely thankful for modern technology: after the teams of two raced their shares of the 6 x 1.3 k team-sprint pie, a hypersensitive camera was needed to determine the winner. It was a three-way photo finish.
Russia’s Natalia Matveeva (r) winning a three-way photo finish for first in the women’s freestyle team sprint on Sunday in Toblach, Italy, ahead of Sweden’s Hanna Falk (second from l, in white), who placed second (+0.04), and Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (second from r), who ended up third (+0.11), respectively. Germany’s Sandra Ringwald (l) finished fourth. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Team Russia I’s Yulia Belorukova and Natalia Matveeva won in a time of 18:00.96, after Matveeva repeated her tactics from Saturday’s individual sprint to come from behind in the finishing stretch.
Just like on Saturday, she followed Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla up the last climb and trailed her closely on the descent. Between them on Sunday, Sweden’s Hanna Falk drafted Falla while skiing in second on the downhill, then went wide on the curve to challenge her over the last 100 meters. Matveeva took the inside line around the turn and snuck up on the other side of Falla. Upon close review, the final results revealed that Matveeva captured the win — her second in two days — by 0.04 seconds over Falk in second, and Falla settled for third (+0.11).
“Today I was definitely not world-class level,” a disappointed Falla said, according to a FIS press release. “I have a strong competitive instinct so this loss really irritates me.”
For Matveeva, it was the beginning of a winning streak, and for her teammate Belorukova, a U23 skier, it was her first World Cup podium.
“It was an amazing weekend in Toblach,” the 30-year-old Matveeva said, according to FIS. “To leave with two wins is great. Yulia did a great job in her leg, and I had a lot of confidence from yesterday I could be again fast on the home stretch. To win with my teammate is really special.”
Falk teamed up with Ida Ingemarsdotter for Sweden I, while Falla combined with Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen for third.
“It was a good day at work,” Ingemarsdotter said, according to FIS. “We raced well and this was a big step in the right direction for the upcoming competitions.”
Canada did not enter a women’s team, and the U.S. team of Sophie Caldwell and Kikkan Randall placed 10th (+20.63).
In an email, U.S. skier Caldwell mentioned it was a grind.
“While I always love the opportunity to do a team event, I think I was running on fumes today,” Caldwell wrote. “The semifinal went well, but I didn’t have too much left in me for the final, so was bleeding some time on pretty much all parts of the course.”
Russia’s Natalia Matveeva (l) and Yulia Belorukova celebrating Belorukova’s first World Cup victory and Matveeva’s second-straight win after Sunday’s freestyle team sprint in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
According to the email, Caldwell went to the hospital last Monday with a “stomach bug”.
“I’m looking forward to getting in some solid training and focusing on eating back the energy I lost earlier this week from being sick. It’s a bummer to have a bad race, especially in a team event, but all I can do is look ahead and try to put this one behind me,” she wrote.
Caldwell placed 11th in Saturday’s sprint, following Randall in 10th.
In their semifinal, the duo raced to third to secure a spot in the final.
“With 15 teams in the final it was pretty busy those first few laps,” Randall wrote in an email. “I just tried to stay relaxed in the pack on my first round. On the second round I tried to move up but it was really hard to find space to get around. I was always able to make up a few places coming off the last turn before the tag zone. But the tag zone was always really chaotic. Matveeva almost took Sophie out on the 2nd tag.”
On her second leg, Randall skied the fastest split and was a handful of seconds back from the lead as she tagged Caldwell.
“We were still right with the lead group going into Sophie’s last lap,” Randall wrote. “Sophie laid it out there up the first climb, but I think the effort caught up with her and we lost touch with the leaders before the last tag. I was able to chase a few teams down to get us into the top 10.”
Like others, Randall is eyeing the World Championships team sprint.
“World Championships this year will be classic so it could play out a little differently than today,” Randall wrote when asked what the U.S. will be looking to improve on in the team sprint. “We just need more durability so we can stay in the fight all the way until the last round and then I think we have several finishers on this team that could be in the hunt for a podium.”
Canada’s Alex Harvey (l) and Len Valjas celebrate their World Cup freestyle team sprint win on Sunday in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: WDR/ARD broadcast screenshot)
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Toblach, Italy): Freestyle team sprint
The Canadians pulled the upset on Sunday in the first team sprint of the season, coming from eighth place and 2.1 seconds back at the last exchange to take the win in the men’s 6 x 1.3-kilometer freestyle team sprint final in Toblach, Italy.
For Len Valjas, it was his first World Cup victory and first time back on the podium in four years. For Alex Harvey, the team’s anchor leg who secured the 0.5-second win over Sweden’s Oskar Svensson, it was a flashback to his team-sprint gold (with teammate Devon Kershaw) at 2011 World Championships. He hadn’t reached the podium in a team sprint since.
“This is unreal,” Valjas, a 28-year-old member of Canada’s World Cup A-team, told the International Ski Federation (FIS) in a televised interview. “Honestly, we were hoping for a good result today, but I had no idea it was going to be this good.”
Harvey did the unthinkable on Sunday, taking the lead on the last climb and into the downhill before the finish. In the preceding women’s team-sprint final and throughout the semifinals earlier in the day, no one had won the race by leading into that downhill. Harvey changed that, surging from third at the base to first by the top, ahead of Sweden’s Svensson and Italy’s Federico Pellegrino.
As he rounded the final lefthand corner into the finishing straight in first, Harvey unleashed one last push to distance himself from his competitors, crossing the line in 16:02.1. Svensson (who teamed up with Karl-Johan Westberg for Sweden I) followed him in second (+0.5), just ahead of Pellegrino (who teamed up with Dietmar Nöckler for Italy I) in third (+0.6).
“I’m feeling good, but I had a really good teammate,” Harvey told FIS. “We said we needed to stay near the front and try to have a good exchange. … People say, ‘Oh, you can’t win the race in the exchange, you can only mess up,’ but today we were moving really well in the exchange and that put me in a great position for the last lap.”
Despite leading for much of the six-leg, 12-lap race, Norway missed the podium with Norway II (Håvard Solås Taugbøl/Pål Golberg) in fourth (+1.1) and Norway I (Sindre Bjørnestad Skar/Johannes Høsflot Klæbo) in fifth (+1.9).
The U.S. men, Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton, placed sixth (+2.6), after Hamilton came on strong on his final lap to overtake both Russian teams and France, among others, after starting the last leg in 11th and 4.5 seconds out of first.
In the women’s 6 x 1.3 k freestyle-sprint final, Russia’s Natalia Matveeva notched her second-straight victory, beating Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Sweden’s Hanna Falk down the finishing stretch after Falla led up and over the final climb. Matveeva finished in 18:00.9 for Russia I, teaming up with Yulia Belorukova for the win after a three-way photo finish for first. Sweden I’s Falk (who teamed up with Ida Ingemarsdotter) edged Falla by seven-hundreths of a second for second place (+0.04), and Norway I (Falla and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen) placed third (+0.11).
The U.S. women’s team, Sophie Caldwell and Kikkan Randall, reached the final and ended up 10th (+20.6), with Randall moving up from 14th at the final exchange.
American Simi Hamilton (5) racing for the win with Norway’s Sindre Bjørnestad Skar (r) as they lead the men’s final down the finishing stretch of Saturday’s 1.3 k freestyle sprint at the World Cup in Toblach, Italy. Skar won the photo finish with Hamilton by 0.03 seconds. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
The feeling was beyond déjà vu. Simi Hamilton remembered the exact moment so clearly: almost exactly 13 months ago, he had led the World Cup men’s freestyle-sprint final in Toblach, Italy, into the last climb and ensuing descent into the stadium. There he was, leading the six-man final and racing for first place. Italy’s Federico Pellegrino took it from him after taking advantage of the downhill draft, slingshotting from second to first, while Hamilton secured second. It was the second podium of Hamilton’s career and first in a non-stage World Cup.
Great moment, but on Saturday, the U.S. Ski Team member was out to make it even better on the same 1.3-kilometer sprint course in Toblach.
In an instant, Hamilton recalled his positioning on that last hill and how those final seconds played out last season as he approached the last hill of Saturday’s final. Hamilton charged from behind to put himself in second by the top, right behind Pellegrino.
“I remember thinking coming down that long downhill, ‘This is awesome because this is exactly what Federico did to me last year,’ ” Hamilton said on the phone after Saturday’s race. “He got a really good draft off of me coming down that downhill and he was able to slingshot through the corner and into the finish stretch so I was really psyched. I was like, ‘This could be a really good thing right now.’ ”
His observations were spot on as the U.S. sprinter — who has worked to improve his distance racing as well — slingshot around Pellegrino to lead into the final curve before the finishing straight. There, he skied over a pocket of softer snow, which caught him off guard and put him back on his heels, he said.
“It kind of it messed with my head a little bit,” Hamilton said. “So I think it took me a second to recover from that, and I was just focusing so hard on not doing anything really stupid in the last 100 meters with the snow conditions kind of being a little funky there.”
At the same time, he knew he had as good a shot at ever at winning.
“I knew that I was fighting for first right there and fairly confident I was going to be on the podium at that point, but I really wanted that first spot, especially with having gotten second last year,” the 29-year-old Colorado native said.
Behind him, Norway’s Sindre Bjørnestad Skar had also taken advantage of the draft, as well as Hamilton’s slight bobble under the archway banner 100 meters before the finish, and came up on Hamilton’s left side to challenge him for first place.
The two went stride-for-stride to the line, which ended in a photo finish for first. Skar celebrated across the line, holding one arm high, while Hamilton teetered out of exhaustion and face planted alongside him. It took several moments to determine the actual winner. Finally, the results revealed that the 24-year-old Skar had taken it by three-hundredths of a second (winning the final in 2:47.91 minutes) for his first individual World Cup victory. For Hamilton, second place marked his first podium this season and the fourth of his career.
The men’s freestyle sprint podium at Saturday’s World Cup in Toblach, Italy, with American Simi Hamilton (l) in second, Norway’s Sindre Bjørnestad Skar (c) in first and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (r) in third. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
“He had a really really solid last 100 meters,” Hamilton said of Skar. “We both threw for the line and he was just coming up a little faster than I was. … It was a little frustrating, for sure, to be second again for the second year in a row, but at the same time he skied really well, and all of those other guys in the final. It is great to share the podium with a bunch of other really talented, strong skiers, who are the best sprinters in the world.”
Norway had two on the podium with 20-year-old Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in third (+0.66).
Pellegrino missed out on the podium by 0.61 seconds in fourth (+1.27), Switzerland’s Jovian Hediger placed fifth (+1.84) and another Norwegian Håvard Solås Taugbøl was sixth (+3.77).
For Skar, who turns 25 on Jan. 22, the victory (which was his third podium this season and his career) was another check mark on his list of season goals.
“Getting my first World Cup victory and then qualifying for the World Championships was one of my goals this year and it seems like that’s going well,” he told NRK after.
After qualifying in fourth (0.78 seconds behind Taugbøl, who won the qualifier in 2:47.38), Skar went on to win the first men’s quarterfinal in a photo finish with Hediger, then placed second in the first semifinal. Taugbøl won that semifinal by just six-hundredths of a second over Skar, while Hamilton was just another 0.05 seconds back in third and Hediger 0.03 seconds behind Hamilton in fourth. All four advanced to the final, where Skar positioned himself in the middle of the pack for much of the two-lap race, skiing in third up the second-to-last climb.
“It was almost like a lottery,” Skar said of the frequent change of leaders in the final during a post-race, televised interview with the International Ski Federation (FIS). “I just tried to stay calm and to have a good sprint.”
He had a feeling that he had the edge on Hamilton, but “it was very, very tight,” Skar said.
For Hamilton, who qualified fifth (+0.83), the podium confirmed what he had been searching for. So far this season, he has only competed in six World Cup races. Three of them were sprints, and his best result before Saturday had been 18th in the skate sprint at the Tour de Ski’s first stage in Val Müstair, Switzerland. After leaving the Tour after Stage 2, Hamilton competed in two OPA Cup races last weekend in Planica, Slovenia. There, he won the skate sprint and finished fifth in the 10 k skate.
“That definitely increased my confidence and I felt much better about where I was fitness-wise and speed-wise with those races last weekend,” Hamilton said. “And I knew that I have skied this course well before and I really enjoy racing here. It is a great place and I love it, and I was just psyched to see what I could do today, and fortunately it ended pretty well.”
U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Chris Grover said it was “incredible” that Hamilton has placed second in Toblach’s sprint two years in a row.
“It’s been fun watching him train on this course this week,” Grover said on the phone Saturday. “He did a big intensity session on the sprint course on Thursday, and when you watch him do it, he just looks like somebody who could be on the podium in this race, and of course he looked like that last week when he won the OPA Cup, too. He was able to go out there and make moves at will and see an opening and take it.
“He’s shown a mastery of this course, and his fitness is quite high,” Grover added. “It’s also worth mentioning that we had incredible skis today. Athletes kept coming back saying, ‘My skis are incredibly fast!’ That’s a key part of the equation.”
As for Hamilton’s form leading up to World Championships late next month?
“I’m hoping that I am not peaking right now because obviously we have quite a bit more time to go before Lahti, but I am definitely feeling like things are still going in the right direction,” Hamilton said.
All 7 Americans Advance
Men and women combined, five Americans and two Canadians started Saturday’s sprint — held less than a week after the nine-day Tour de Ski (TDS) ended last Sunday. Three of those Americans were women; the two Canadians were both men. Just one of them completed the Tour. Most of the competitors in Toblach this weekend did not compete in this year’s TDS.
Of those seven North Americans, all of them finished in the top 30 of their respective qualifiers on Saturday to advance to the heats.
Hamilton led the group in fifth, and just another 0.27 seconds back, his U.S. teammate Andy Newell qualified in sixth, 1.1 seconds behind Taugbøl.
Canada’s Alex Harvey racing to eighth in the men’s 1.3 k freestyle sprint qualifier on Saturday at the Toblach World Cup in Italy. (Photo: Salomon/Nordic Focus)
Canada’s Alex Harvey qualified eighth (+1.73) and Len Valjas 23rd (+4.16) out of 70 starters. (Of note: Russia’s TDS winner Sergey Ustiugov finished last in the qualifier in 70th, nearly 42 seconds off Taugbøl’s time.)
In the first men’s quarterfinal, Newell took third at the finish, 0.38 seconds behind Skar in first. Their quarterfinal time wasn’t fast enough to put Newell through as a lucky loser, and he ended up 13th on the day for his best result this season. In his fourth World Cup sprint this season, Saturday marked Newell’s first time qualifying in the top 30.
“Skate skiing and I haven’t been on great terms the last year or so haha,” Newell wrote in an email. “But in all seriousness I knew this year was meant to be a rebuilding process for me so I’m happy to be back on track.
“I finished last season not ever wanting to race a sprint race again, so I knew mentally and physically it was going to take some work to build back up to being a medal contender again,” he added. “I have to keep reminding myself that it’s still just January and to be patient and continue to try to make small gains and build throughout the season. Points and standings aren’t important to me at this time, just staying healthy and strong and building toward the World Championships and especially the Olympic year.”
Harvey raced to fourth in the second quarterfinal, 0.42 seconds behind Hamilton, who won that heat. The Canadian ended up in a photo finish with Norway’s Sondre Turvoll Fossli for third in that quarterfinal and missed it by 0.08 seconds. Neither Fossli nor Harvey advanced to the semifinals, and Harvey placed 17th overall (moving him up to fourth in the overall World Cup standings).
“I think that was my best qualifier in two years so I was a bit surprised,” said Harvey, who was coming off a career-best seventh in the TDS and had originally planned to skip the individual sprint to rest up for Sunday’s freestyle team sprint, according to a Cross Country Canada (CCC) press release. “It was such an easy trip to come down to Toblach. I just felt if I’m doing race prep I might as well put a bib on and see what happens. I felt a lot of speed today and was quite happy.”
Harvey noted the precise tactics of the Toblach sprint with a “good course here that has you always turning left,” he told CCC. “You need to keep on the inside lane because it is a little quicker, especially with the fresh snow, so if you took the lead it was hard for someone to go by you. I was just not quick enough from the start.”
Valjas also finished fourth in his quarterfinal, 1.58 seconds behind Pellegrino who won that heat, to place 20th overall. While Valjas remained in contact with the leaders throughout, he found himself at the back of the group early and moved up slightly to secure fourth at the finish.
Three U.S. Women in Semis
Meanwhile in the women’s race, the three U.S. entrants — Sophie Caldwell, Ida Sargent and Kikkan Randall — qualified for the heats in 15th, 16th and 27th, respectively.
Caldwell’s 15th-ranked qualifying time was 4.82 seconds behind the qualifying winner, Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla, who completed the 1.3 k course in 3:10.89.
American Sophie Caldwell racing to 15th in the women’s 1.3 k freestyle sprint qualifier at the World Cup in Toblach, Italy.(Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Sargent was another 0.27 seconds back in 16th (+5:09), and Randall was 7.52 seconds off Falla’s qualifying mark.
All three U.S. women reached the semifinals, with Caldwell and Sargent automatically advancing after taking second in their quarterfinals. In the first quarterfinal, Caldwell finished 0.18 seconds behind Sweden’s Hanna Falk, and Sargent was 0.23 seconds behind the winner of the fifth quarterfinal, Slovenia’s Vesna Fabjan. Randall reached the semis as a lucky loser, after placing fourth in the fourth quarterfinal, 1.42 seconds behind Germany’s Sandra Ringwald in first.
For Randall, it marked her first semifinal appearance in two years (she took last season off to have a baby).
“I am feeling a little closer to my normal sprint gears every race,” Randall wrote in an email on Saturday. “Today’s qualifier was a good start. In the quarterfinals I was in a really fast heat and just tried to stay relaxed in the pack. We had really fast skis today and I was able to be strong in the finish so it was really exciting to advance to the semis.”
In the first semifinal, Randall and Caldwell squared off against a stacked heat with Norway’s Falla, Sweden’s Falk and her teammate Ida Ingemarsdotter, and Russia’s Natalia Matveeva. During the first lap, Caldwell positioned herself in third and trailed Matveeva and Falla on the descent before the start of Lap 2. There, on the downhill, Randall rode up into Caldwell and both tumbled to the ground and out of contention before the second lap.
“Our skis were incredibly fast today and that was actually a little bit of the problem,” Randall explained. “When our pack came down the hill that first time in the semi, everyone came together into the corner. The other girls went right so I could really only take the inside. I came up on Sophie faster than expected and tried to sneak by on the inside. But there wasn’t much space and I think I may have knocked her boot with my ski.
“When she lost balance there was nowhere to go and my skis went underneath her as we fell,” she continued. “I feel really bad because I think I caused the crash. It was a real bummer because I think both of us were feeling good and ready to mix it up. But luckily we are both OK and there was no broken bodies or equipment.”
U.S. teammates Kikkan Randall (l) and Sophie Caldwell (r) after colliding in the first women’s semifinal on Saturday at the World Cup skate sprint in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: ARD broadcast screenshot)
In what appeared to be a slow-motion tangle, both Randall and Caldwell appeared to smile at each other as they realized their misfortune. Caldwell particularly had trouble freeing her ski. The two finished fifth and sixth in that heat (Randall 22 seconds back in fifth, and Caldwell a minute back from Falla as the winner of that semifinal in sixth).
“[Kikkan] asked if I was okay and apologized,” Caldwell recalled. “It’s a bummer, but it’s unfortunately part of ski racing and there are no hard feelings.”
“We’ve had problems with that same thing before,” Grover noted. “Everyone from behind runs up on everyone who’s in front, and then, depending on if you’re pinched on the inside, or if you can make some space on the outside, you can end up making it through or you can end up in some trouble. It’s a pinch point, a tough point on the course, for sure.”
He added that Randall “took full accountability” for the crash, and there were no hard feelings.
“She felt quite bad about it, and Sophie bears no grudge about it because she knows that’s the kind of thing that happens in sprint racing all the time,” he said. “Those guys are good and they are going to be sprint teammates tomorrow, so we’ll start looking forward to the next day.”
Grover said his staff had to make the tough call of picking two women out of three for Sunday’s team sprint.
Sargent raced to sixth in the second semifinal on Saturday, just 0.86 seconds out of first. She had moved up to third on the final climb, trailing Norway’s Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen and Germany’s Ringwald, respectively, and held her position on the final curve into the finishing straight. There, both Jacobsen and Sargent were overtaken by Slovenia’s Fabjan (who came on strong for second place) and Switzerland’s Laurien van der Graaff (third), following Ringwald in first.
Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team) racing to a season-best 10th on Saturday in the World Cup freestyle sprint in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
At the end of the day, U.S. women occupied 10th through 12th place, with Randall in 10th, Caldwell in 11th and Sargent in 12th.
“I tried to stay relaxed in the heats, but I felt really good so I just tried to ski near the front of the pack,” Sargent wrote in an email. “The course is really frustrating though with a long downhill with a draft that brings everyone back together but I just tried to stay out of trouble. I thought that I was in a great position in the semifinal going into the finish but then I hit something and I’m not really sure what it was, but it stopped my ski dead and I almost fell. After that bobble it was hard to get going again and so I was really bummed to lose all the places and not advance.”
For Sargent, 12th was her best result in over a year.
“I felt really strong today so I’m happy with my fitness at this point in the season,” she wrote. “We had a small staff this weekend but they did an amazing job and I’m very thankful for such awesome skis!”
In terms of how the U.S. coaches made the call for between those three for Sunday’s team sprint, Grover said it wasn’t easy.
“… As luck would have it, we had three athletes finish 10, 11, 12 on the day today, which did not make it any easier,” he said. “You actually had three athletes who are fairly evenly matched in a lot of respects right now, in terms of how they’re skiing. In the end, we decided that we really wanted to have Kikkan’s experience, in team sprint in particular and in closing out a team sprint, and in the second leg, we wanted Sophie to be able to rely on her aerobic conditioning at the moment … It was a very hard decision for us … I really wish we had a fourth woman here, so we could start two teams.”
Matveeva Gets First Win in Nearly a Decade
While the three U.S. women missed Saturday’s final, Russia’s Matveeva — who hadn’t won a World Cup race since 2007 — went on to outlast Falla for her 12th-career individual podium. Eight years ago, Matveeva tested positive for EPO was was suspended from competing from December 2009 to March 2011. After that, she reportedly had two ACL tears. Now 30, Matveeva captured her second-career sprint win on Saturday by eight-hundredths of a second over Falla.
Russia’s Natalia Matveeva (l) winning Saturday’s freestyle sprint final, by 0.08 seconds over Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (r), for her first World Cup win since October (!) 2007. Sweden’s Hanna Falk (3) placed third. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
“I’ve waited a lot of time to be [here],” Matveeva told FIS in a post-race interview. “I’m very happy and the Russian team is very happy. Thank you very much my service team. Good job today.”
Matveeva charged to an early lead in the final, while Falla challenged her on the first of two climbs on the second lap. Matveeva followed her closely leading into the last climb, where Falla beat her to the top with a quicker-tempo V1. As the two descended into the stadium with a slight gap to Falk in third place, Matveeva drafted Falla then rode up alongside her, taking the outside line around the turn. The two sprinted toward the line, with Matveeva getting one extra push in for first place in 3:04.13.
“I don’t feel particularly well so second place is all right, but of course it’s frustrating to be beaten in the final stretch,” Falla told NRK. “I knew she would be fast in the final stretch. I’m a little lighter than everyone else, and that’s not an advantage.”
At the same time, Falla wasn’t bitter.
“It’s good that more people are fighting for the top spots before the World Championships; it’s more exciting then,” she said. “We have to see the positive in it all.”
Falk took the final spot on the podium in third (+2.41), and Ringwald was one second shy of it in fourth (+3.46). Ingemarsdotter finished fifth (+5.88) and Fabjan was sixth (+19.39).
In Sunday’s 6 x 1.3 k freestyle team sprint, Caldwell and Randall are teaming up in the first women’s semifinal, while their men’s team of Newell and Hamilton will be in the second men’s semifinal. Also in that second men’s semifinal are Canada’s Valjas and Harvey.
The women’s (top) and men’s (bottom) podiums at the World Cup 1.3 k freestyle sprints on Saturday in Toblach, Italy. Russia’s Natalia Matveeva (top center) won the women’s final, ahead of Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (top left) and Hanna Falk (top right). American Simi Hamilton (bottom left) took second in the men’s final, behind Norway’s Sindre Bjørnestad Skar (bottom center) and ahead of Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (bottom right) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country)
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Toblach, Italy): Freestyle sprints
Simi Hamilton is back on the World Cup podium and was three-hundredths of a second away from the win on Saturday in the men’s 1.3-kilometer freestyle sprint in Toblach, Italy. The American qualified fifth and went on to win his quarterfinal then advance as a lucky loser in third out of him semifinal. In the men’s final, Hamilton waited until the last hill to strike and used his conserved energy in the two-lap race to outlast the likes of Italy’s Federico Pellegrino and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo at the finish. Hamilton put it all on the line in a photo finish with Norway’s Sindre Bjørnestad Skar, with Skar taking his first individual World Cup victory in 2:47.91. Hamilton placed second for his first podium of the season and fourth of his career. It was also Hamilton’s first time in the final this season.
Klæbo was the second Norwegian on the podium in third, 0.66 seconds behind Skar, Pellegrino placed fourth (+1.27), Hediger was fifth (+1.84), and Norway’s Håvard Solås Taugbøl (who won the qualifier to start the day in 2:47.38) took sixth (+3.77).
“I just had a good feeling that I was a little bit before [Hamilton],” Skar said in a post-race interview with FIS of his immediate finish-line celebration before confirming that he won. “It was very, very tight.”
Skar, who turns 25 on Jan. 22, qualified fourth and won his quarterfinal and finished second in his semifinal, 0.05 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
Also for the U.S., Andy Newell qualified for the heats in sixth and took third in his quarterfinal for 13th overall. Canada’s Alex Harvey qualified eighth and finished fourth in his quarterfinal for 17th overall, and the second Canadian racing this weekend, Len Valjas, qualified 23rd and took fourth in his quarterfinal for 20th.
In the women’s race, Russia’s 30-year-old Natalia Matveeva notched the 12th individual podium of her career (all in sprints) and first victory since 2007. She challenged Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla on the last climb and overtook her in the finishing stretch of Saturday’s 1.3 k skate sprint final for the win in 3:04.13. Matveeva qualified fourth to start the day, then placed second in both her quarterfinal and semifinal en route to the victory. Falla won the qualifier in 3:10.89, and continued to dominate her quarterfinal and semifinal before ending up second on the day, just 0.08 seconds out of first.
“I’ve waited a lot of time to be [here],” Matveeva told FIS afterward. “I’m very happy and the Russian team is very happy. Thank you very much my service team. Good job today.”
Sweden’s Hanna Falk reached the podium in third (+2:41), Germany’s Sandra Ringwald placed fourth (+3.46), Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter was fifth (+5.88), and Slovenia’s Vesna Fabjan sixth (+19.39).
Americans Kikkan Randall and Sophie Caldwell tangled in the first semifinal and ended up 10th and 11th, respectively, at the end of the day. Also for the U.S. Ski Team, Ida Sargent qualified for the heats in 16th (behind Caldwell in 15th while Randall qualified 27th), and reached the semifinals as well, placing sixth in the second semifinal after skiing in third into the finishing stretch. Sargent ended up 12th for her best result in over a year.
Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen posts a 22-second win for her first victory of the season and first time shooting without a miss in an individual race since the Ruhpolding sprint almost exactly a year ago. Dunklee leads North Americans in 33rd and qualifies for the pursuit, along with Canada’s Rosanna Crawford (55th), Megan Tandy (56th) and Julia Ransom (60th).
Ski Classics Kaiser Maximilian Lauf (Seefeld, Austria): 60 k classic
[UPDATED] Imagine knee-deep snow drifts over the course of 60 k. That’s what faced racers in Saturday’s Kaiser Maximilian Lauf, the fourth stop in the 2016/2017 Ski Classics series, in Seefeld, Austria.
Team Santander’s Kateřina Smutná and Andreas Nygaard fared best in the conditions, racing to the women’s and men’s victories in 3:43:48.7 and 3:21:44.5, respectively.
Smutna won the women’s race by 10.8 seconds over Astrid Øyre Slind (Team United Bakeries), and Britta Johansson Norgren (Lager 157 Ski Team) finished more than three minutes later in third place (+3:35).
“It was the right decision to go with kick today,” Smutná said after, according to a Ski Classics press release. “It was hard for us to be in the lead and open the tracks for men. We waited for them to catch up and do the work on our behalf. I noticed it was tough for Britta because she was double poling. So, Astrid and I decided to work together in the final section of the course, and it worked perfectly.”
The men’s race was much closer with Nygaard holding off his Team Santander teammate Tord Asle Gjerdalen by 0.6 seconds. Stian Hoelgaard (Team Leaseplan) placed third, another 0.6 seconds back.
“It was a tough race because there was so much snow on the course,” Nygaard said, according to the press release. “At some point, we were knee-deep in soft snow. The pace was slow, but you get tired after a while because you have to work hard when it’s snowing like this. I just kept telling myself that I need to keep up with the guys and win the race in the end. This is something that I didn’t expect to happen when the season started. Let’s see how long I can keep the yellow [leaders] bib.”
The overall Ski Classics series leader, Nygaard is also the sprint leader as well. On the women’s side, Johansson Norgren possesses both the overall and sprint bibs as well.
FasterSkier Editor-at-Large Chelsea Little placed 17th.
The women’s classic sprint final podium at the opening World Cup races in Ruka, Finland on Saturday Nov. 26. From left to right: Heidi Weng of Norway, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, and Norwegian Maiken Caspersen Falla. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Norway’s women’s team has a long history with classic racing in Kuusamo, Finland. For 15 years, International Ski Federation (FIS) Cross Country World Cup competitions have taken place on these trails, with Norway winning every classic race at the Ruka venue except two — falling to Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen in 2009 and more recently, Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk in 2013.
Three years later, another woman’s name has now knocked Norway’s out of first: Sweden’s Stina Nilsson.
In the women’s 1.4-kilometer sprint final on Saturday, Nilsson battled two Norwegians –including last year’s Sprint Cup winner, Maiken Caspersen Falla — two Russians, and a Finn, for her first title ever in a classic race.
“It feels super awesome, especially to win a classic race,” Nilsson, 23, said during a television interview.
After qualifying second, 1.14 seconds behind the winning qualification time of 3:21.15 set by Finland’s Krista Parmakowski, Nilsson overtook the lead by the end of the first quarterfinal and held it through her semifinal and the final.
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson bib 2 racing to her first ever classic title on Saturday Nov. 26 at the opening World Cup races in Ruka, Finland. Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (l) finished in second. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Nilsson and Parmakoski started the day’s rounds in the first quarterfinal one, leading Kowalczyk and another Finn, Laura Mononen, as well as Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva and Norway’s Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen off the start.
Parmakoski pulled into the lead through the first major downhill, first major ascent and into the second major course descent. However, by the last large climb, Nilsson proved too powerful for the Finn. Within three strides, Nilsson passed Parmakoski and by the top of the hill had established enough of a gap to double pole her way safely across the finish line of her quarterfinal in first.
In a much closer semifinal, Nilsson found herself in fourth alongside her Swedish teammate Hannah Falk for most of the heat, tightly trailing Russia’s Natalia Matveeva and Norway’s Falla all the way through the second major descent. By the bottom of the final climb, it was Matveeva in front, with Falla working to her left. Navigating to the inside, Nilsson found a second wind, eventually outlasting both the Norwegian and the Russian in the race to the top.
Back in the lead with 100-meters to go, Nilsson once again crossed in first, leaving the photo finish to Falla and Matveeva. Falla automatically advanced to the final after capturing second, while Matveeva earned one of the ‘Lucky Loser’ spots. Parmakoski garnered the final’s last lucky loser spot after crossing fourth in Nilsson’s semifinal.
Facing off against Falla once more, as well as her Norwegian teammate, Heidi Weng–the winner of the second semifinal–along with Russia’s Yulia Belorukova and Matveeva, as well as Parmakowski in the final, Nilsson took no chances off the start.
The Swede punched the pace through the initial decent, but by the first major climb she began to lose steam. Falla challenged Nilsson on the right, while Matveeva closed in from the left. Weng hung on behind her teammate in fourth place, while Parmakoski raced in fifth and Belorukova in sixth.
Regaining the front position from Nilsson by the second large downhill on course, the sprint leader Falla appeared to be preparing to gap herself from the group. Midway through the final climb, however, the Swede’s white suit was once more on the attack. Fading into a chase pack by the top of the climb were Falla, Weng, and Matveeva, while Nilsson blew her way back into the lead.
With 100 meters to go, Falla jumped in behind Nilsson. With 50 meters to go, Falla switched lanes, moving to the Swede’s right in an effort to edge by for the win. Holding on tightly her first classic title, Nilsson double poled across the finish line first in a time of 3:21.61, while Falla finished 0.17 hundreths of a second behind her in second.
“I’m happy about the [second] place, it was a good start to the season and it shows promise for Lillehammer– it’s fun to be on the podium already,” Falla, 26, said during a television interview.
Falla’s teammate Weng rounded out the podium in third, crossing 0.69 seconds off of Nilsson’s time.
“I’m very happy, I’ve never had such a good season opener in Kusammo,” Weng, 25, said during a T.V. interview. “The conditions were challenging so we had use herringbone.”
Other final finishers included Matveeva in fourth (+3.18), Parmakowski in fifth (+5.12) and Belorukova in sixth (+8.94).
Four Americans Qualify; Bjornsen 17th
American/USST member Sadie Bjornsen racing to a seventh place in the women’s qualifier on Saturday Nov. 26 at the opening World Cup races in Ruka, Finland. Bjornsen went on to finish 17th overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
The U.S. Ski Team (USST) saw four women qualify for the heats on Saturday, with Sadie Bjornsen leading the group after qualifying in seventh (+4.41), followed by Jessie Diggins who qualified 13th (+6.27), Ida Sargent in 23rd (+10.28) and Sophie Caldwell, who nabbed the final qualification spot, in 30th (+11.84).
Though Bjornsen indicated that her preparation leading into the season has been different than in years past–due partly to a heel spur problem she has been nursing during the past two months, which forced her to engage in sans shoe training, such as swimming, ski erging, and heel-less biking–the 27-year-old saw Saturday’s performance as a good sign of where her training is taking her.
“Today was only my third time classic skiing in the past months, so it was great to finally find my classic ‘feeling’ this morning just before the start,” Bjornsen wrote in an email to media outlets. “The past few days I have been nervous, and questioning myself more than normal, so today was a wonderful ‘check’.”
A Winthrop, Washington, native who trains with Alaska Pacific University (APU) in Anchorage, Alaska, Bjornsen decided prior to the start of the 2016/2017 season that she would hold no expectations over herself, other than to give every race she entered a good fight.
With that in mind, she lead the start of her quarterfinal and pushed the pace early on. Following close behind her was the swiss skier Laurien Van der Graaff, Russia’s Daria Vedenina, Kerttu Niskanen of Finland, Norway’s Heidi Weng and Germany’s Sandra Ringwald.
Bjornsen held her lead until the final climb of the course, where the powdery snow appeared to slow down her ability to keep up a high turnover in her herringbone. She was overtaken by Weng and Rigwald before the top of the climb and crossed fourth in her quarterfinal for 17th overall.
“I had a great qualifier, and went into the heats with some confidence,” Bjornsen wrote. “The start was great, but I started to struggle on the final climb. I am missing a little bit of “high speed leg speed”, but that is something I am confident will come with using my legs again. I am looking forward to skiing more, and racing more!”
“I believe that as a team, we will do well pretty much all year, but today we were kicking out the cobwebs a little bit.” — U.S. women’s head coach, Matt Whitcomb the USST’s sprint performance in Ruka
The next two American finishers for the day were Sophie Caldwell in 20th overall and Ida Sargent in 23rd. Both were slated to start in the third quarterfinal, going head-to-head against some of Norway’s top competitors, including Falla and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg. Though her qualifier was not what she was looking for performance-wise, Caldwell was glad she was able to sneak into the rounds and get a bit more time racing before the day’s end.
“In my quarterfinal I felt better, skied smarter, and made a better decision with skis than I did in the morning,” Caldwell, 26, wrote in an email. “Even though this isn’t the result I’m the most proud of, it is the best result I’ve ever had in Kuusamo and it was a good opportunity to clean out the cobwebs and get a race under my belt.”
Sargent, who traveled to Europe a couple weeks prior to the start of the World Cup race season with her club team, the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, managed to jump into a few races in Muonio, Finland in hopes of feeling more mentally and physically prepared for the official FIS season’s start.
American/USST member Sophie Caldwell racing to a 30th place in the women’s qualifier on Saturday Nov. 26 at the opening World Cup races in Ruka, Finland. Caldwell went on to finish 20th overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
“It has a give and take because I think having a little bit more time at home for me especially right after the Park City camp also would have been beneficial,” the 26-year-old Sargent said during a phone conversation of her decision to travel to Europe early. “It was nice to just get my feet under me and do a few warm-up races,” she added. “I think those made a big difference.”
“Today was one of the days you had to be good at feathering [the uphills]” Sargent continued. “I’m still working on that…It was good to get the first one out of the way and go from here.”
The final American woman to finish in Saturday’s sprint was Diggins in 26th overall. Along with a false start from Finland’s Anne Kylloenen, Diggins also dealt with a close encounter from Russia’s Polina Kovaleva at the start of her quarterfinal.
“[Kovaleva’s] lane ended and she was going to try to move over and she tried to move over right on top of me and obviously that didn’t work,” Diggins, said during a phone conversation.
“But I was proud of myself for not letting it rattle me and being able to shake it off and get back into the race,” Diggins added.
Unlike previous years, Diggins did not travel to Europe for a pre-World Cup race season camp. She opted instead to spend a few extra weeks at home, meaning the opening races in Ruka would be her first on snow.
“It was definitely pretty nerve wracking coming into the race season being like ‘OK I haven’t raced yet this year’,” Diggins said. “I mean, we’ve done time trials, but that’s not the same.”
Though Diggins feels confident in her fitness coming into the season, the 25-year-old is ready to make changes where she feels they are necessary using Ruka as her baseline.
“Definitely, it was really tricky conditions out there with the tracks deteriorating,” Diggins said. “But I also need to work on my technique…that’s on me and I’m not going to make any excuses for my races.”
With four women having qualified for the heats, U.S. women’s head coach, Matt Whitcomb indicated that standout performances were not a priority for races this early in the season.
“We always have the intention of winning the races that we race in, but there is in fact a strategy of really trying to build into this period one and to place our higher performances later in the year so that we can really smash things at World Champs,” Whitcomb said during a phone conversation. “I believe that as a team, we will do well pretty much all year, but today we were kicking out the cobwebs a little bit.”
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/08/38412161_1126725037481123_1771568851620724736_n.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/08/Screenshot-2018-08-03-at-18.14.36-e1533341800788.png")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/08/Screenshot-2018-08-03-at-18.06.05-e1533341823304.png")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/08/Screenshot-2018-08-03-at-18.03.07-e1533341811564.png")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/08/Image-from-iOS-6.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/08/Image-from-iOS-5.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/08/Image-from-iOS-8.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/08/Image-from-iOS-7.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/DRNhp10U8AEwi58.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/Dunklee-1-Large-1.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/DRLCrSPWAAAO0hK.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/DRKecaVX4AAEF8J.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/Burke151217cm41_1600x1000-1.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/jpg-1-3.jpeg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/Guigonnat-1-Large.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/Doherty151217cm144.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/S-Gow-3-Large.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/caldwell-sargent-matveeva.jpg")
![Winner Brian Gregg (LNR/Team Gregg) flanked by second place Scott Hill (r, BXC) and Bob Thompson (l, NTDC TBay) (Photo: Kai Symington-Kruss)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/RosslandDay1MPodium.jpg")
![Caitlin Gregg (Loppet Nordic Racing/Team Gregg) on her way to victory. (Photo: Kai Symington-Kruss)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/RosslandDay1CGreggDescending.jpg")
![CNEPH's Sophie Carrier-Laforte charging the downhill on her way to third place. (Photo: Kai Syminton-Kruss)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/RosslandDay1SophieCLDescending.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/02/1800377_10152004281380749_947633605_n.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/03/IMG_9519.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/02/photo-3-1.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/SMF2195.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/02/gaiazova.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/02/photo-4-1.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/04/2-28-17-Ladies-10km-Classic-00309.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/DSC_3740copyW.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/07/20535865_10159139472380080_1830130006_o.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/07/image-2.jpeg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/07/image-2-1.jpeg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/07/20542919_10159139613190080_1425310_o.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/JCL_0104_1W-e1488152998164.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/JCL_9723_1W-e1488153083957.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/JCL_9030_1W-e1488153590208.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/JCL_0145_1W.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/JCL_9776_1W-e1488153360874.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/JCL_0135_1W-1.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/C5mTAObXQAAhPXk.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/jpg-3-2.jpeg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Flowerpodium-e1487887387461.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Group23217fm0036.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Randall23022017vt0072.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/DigginsLahtiSilver-e1487886265845.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/RandallLahtiBronze-e1487885981515.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/JCL_3859_1W.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/JCL_5971_1W.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Diggins23022017vt0001.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Nilsson18217fm0124.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Podium18217fm0118.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Nilsson18217fm0217.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Group18217fm0144.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/0000219991_1200px_0TBHQIO0GA22GX0OUWGAO0Z90D8G.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Randall18217fm0156.jpg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/C49TewgW8AQE4MM.jpg-large.jpeg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/C48eyfBW8AA5_Cd.jpg-large.jpeg")
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/C48ftlrXUAAVqdJ.jpg")
![Canada's Alex Harvey (l) and Len Valjas celebrate their World Cup freestyle team sprint win on Sunday in Toblach, Italy. It was the first team-sprint victory for Canada since 2011 World Championships. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Valjas15012017vt0104.jpg")
![Canada's Lenny Valjas (in red) en route to his first World Cup victory in the men's freestyle team sprint in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Skar15012017vt0081.jpg")
![Respect the power of the mustache: Canadian Alex Harvey celebrates as he anchors his team to a World Cup freestyle team sprint win on Sunday in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: Salomon/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Harvey15012017vt0092.jpg")
![Canada's Alex Harvey (13) leading American Simi Hamilton (15) among others in the men's 6 x 1.3 k freestyle team sprint on Sunday at the World Cup in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: Salomon/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Harvey15012017vt0047-Copy.jpg")
![Russia's Natalia Matveeva (r) winning a three-way photo finish for first in the women's freestyle team sprint on Sunday in Toblach, Italy, ahead of Sweden's Hanna Falk (in white), who placed second (+0.04), and Norway's Maiken Caspersen Falla (second from l), who ended up third (+0.11), respectively. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Matveeva15012017vt0070.jpg")
![Russia's Natalia Matveeva (l) and Yulia Belorukova celebrating Belorukova's first World Cup victory and Matveeva's second-straight win after Sunday's freestyle team sprint in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Matveeva15012017vt0071.jpg")
![Canada's Alex Harvey (l) and Len Valjas celebrate their World Cup freestyle team sprint win on Sunday in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: ARD broadcast screenshot)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Harvey-Valjas-celebration-1.jpg")
![Simi Hamilton (l) racing for first with Norway's Sindre Bjørnestad Skar (r) as they lead the men's final down the finishing stretch of Saturday's 1.3 k freestyle sprint at the World Cup in Toblach, Italy. Skar won the photo finish with Hamilton by 0.03 seconds. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Taugboel14012017vt0144.jpg")
![The men's freestyle sprint podium at Saturday's World Cup in Toblach, Italy, with American Simi Hamilton (l) in second, Norway's Sindre Bjørnestad Skar (c) in first and Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (r) in third. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Klaebo14012017vt0149.jpg")
![Canada's Alex Harvey racing to eighth in the men's 1.3 k freestyle sprint qualifier on Saturday at the Toblach World Cup in Italy. (Photo: Salomon/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Harvey14012017vt0065.jpg")
![American Sophie Caldwell racing to 15th in the women's 1.3 k freestyle sprint qualifier at the World Cup in Toblach, Italy.(Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Caldwell14012017vt0010.jpg")
![U.S. teammates Kikkan Randall (l) and Sophie Caldwell (r) after colliding in the first women's semifinal on Saturday at the World Cup skate sprint in Toblach, Italy.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Screen-Shot-2017-01-14-at-21.21.21.jpg")
![Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team) racing to a season-best 10th on Saturday in the World Cup freestyle sprint in Toblach, Italy. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Randall14012017vt0048.jpg")
![Russia's Natalia Matveeva (l) winning Saturday's freestyle sprint final, by 0.08 seconds over Norway's Maiken Caspersen Falla (r), for her first World Cup win since October (!) 2007. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Falla14012017vt0131.jpg")
![The women's (top) and men's (bottom) podiums at the World Cup 1.3 k freestyle sprints on Saturday in Toblach, Italy. Russia's Natalia Matveeva (top center) won the women's final, ahead of Norway's Maiken Caspersen Falla (top left) and Hanna Falk (top right). American Simi Hamilton (bottom left) took second in the men's final, behind Norway's Sindre Bjørnestad Skar (bottom center) and ahead of Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (bottom right) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/C2I_Y12WIAAINhJ.jpg")
![The women's classic sprint final podium at the opening FIS races in Ruka, Finland on Saturday Nov. 26. From left to right: Heidi Weng of Norway, Sweden's Stina Nilsson, and Norwegian Maiken Caspersen. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/Podium261116fm198-e1480191760880.jpg")
![Sweden's Stina Nilsson bib 2 racing to her first ever classic title on Saturday Nov. 26 at the pening FIS races in Ruka, Finland. Norway's Maiken Caspersen Falla (l) finished in second. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/Nilsson261116fm196-e1480191942964.jpg")
![American Sadie Bjornsen racing to a seventh place in the women's qualifier on Saturday Nov. 26 at the opening FIS races in Ruka, Finland. Bjornsen went on to finish 17th overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/Bjornsen261116fm073.jpg")
![American Sophie Caldwell racing to a 30th place in the women's qualifier on Saturday Nov. 26 at the opening FIS races in Ruka, Finland. Caldwell went on to finish 20th overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/Caldwell261116fm008.jpg")