FasterSkier

Tag: Sam Tarling

  • Distance Races on the Classic Boards at Junior Nationals – Photos Added

    Distance Races on the Classic Boards at Junior Nationals – Photos Added

    Today was the second day of racing here in Presque Isle and was the first day of distance, with the J2’s skiing classic 5ks, while the J1/OJ women and men skied 10k and 15ks. The J2 girls started at 10a.m and the boys at 10:30. The conditions for this race were hard and fast making the race very interesting.

    Corey Stock of New England and Cole Morgan of Intermountain (who also celebrated a birthday today) each repeated their championship performances from Mondays sprint races. Stock won her race by 13.5 seconds over teammate Heather Mooney, while Morgan barely squeaked out another victory by .6 seconds over New England’s Jack Hegman.

    The J1/OJ girl’s races were equally as entertaining with PNSA skier Annie Pokorny coming out on top for J1 girls by 7.8 seconds over Midwest racer Annie Hart. The OJ women also had a very close race with only 30 seconds between the winner Kaitlynn Miller of New England claiming her second title and fifth place Corrine Prevot of New England. This only leads one to wonder how close the race would have been if it had stayed a mass start.

    “I was pretty disappointed that it wasn’t a mass start”, said Prevot “I think I could have skied well in the mass start”.

    This was the general feeling of many of the athletes who were very excited about a mass start this year at JO’s.

    A couple of the athletes that didn’t mind having an individual start were among the J1/OJ boys field.

    One of these athletes is second place David Sinclair of New England who finished 12.9 seconds behind Alaska’s Scott Patterson. Instead of being let down by having no mass start, Sinclair used the individual start to his advantage.

    Sinclair explained “I saw the start list and noticed that Dave Norris (OJ boy’s winner from Alaska) was starting 30 seconds behind me, so when he caught me at 6k I just stayed on his tails and tried to match his rhythm until he lost me at 13.5k”.

    Two other boys that were happy for the individual start were Dave Norris and Sam Tarling of New England.

    “The individual start didn’t matter”, said Norris “I just wanted to go out hard and see if anyone else could match me”.

    Tarling was also excited to have the individual start as he felt it “favored him in a 15k classic race”.

    For both of these athletes the race style worked out very well for them as they both skied away from the field by almost a minute while only 3.3 seconds separated Norris and Tarling.

    Today didn’t show the same dominance from team New England, as the results showed a much more even distribution of teams throughout each of the age groups. The hunt for the prestigious Alaska cup is still on and the fight will continue Friday here in Presque Isle, Maine with the distance skate race.

    Complete Results.

  • Patterson Leads American Juniors with 17th in Hinterzarten; Norway’s Golberg Wins

    Patterson Leads American Juniors with 17th in Hinterzarten; Norway’s Golberg Wins

    Sam Tarling nearing the finish of the men's 10k at the World Junior Championships, HInterzarten, Germany
    Sam Tarling nearing the finish of the men's 10k at the World Junior Championships, HInterzarten, Germany

    They’re not the Northug family yet, but give them some time.

    After Caitlin Patterson skied to a 17th place showing in this morning’s women’s 5k classic at the World Junior Championships, Scott Patterson wouldn’t be shown up, matching his older sister’s position in the men’s 10k in the afternoon.

    According to Matt Whitcomb, the head coach of the American juniors here, Scott had told his sister that he would beat her placing in his own race, and he came a single second from doing just that. He ended up just 1:15 behind the winner, Norway’s Paal Golberg.

    Scott Patterson on the initial climb in the 10k classic
    Scott Patterson on the initial climb in the 10k classic

    “I think it was the first time I’ve heard him trash-talk,” Whitcomb said.

    Sam Tarling had a breakout race, just five spots behind Patterson in 22nd. David Norris and Tyler Kornfield, both recovering from illness, were 29th and 77th, respectively

    Golberg improved on his silver medal from Monday’s sprint in today’s 10k, which he said is his favorite event. He battled with second-place Evgeniy Belov (RUS) for the entire race, trailing by less than two seconds at both intermediate time checks. But the Russian fell off the pace in the last three kilometers, conceding ten seconds to the Golberg by the finish.

    Petr Sedov (RUS), who won both distance races at these championships last year, rounded out the podium another 25 seconds back.

    After two days of fog and mist at the Notschrei Nordic Center, athletes were greeted today by bluebird skies and warm sun. Recent snowfall here combined with crisp temperatures made for a simple waxing day—Sverre Caldwell said that the men skied on straight fluorinated kick wax.

    They needed every bit of it, as the 3.3k men’s loop here was almost entirely up and down, with very little double poling. None of the hills were too steep for striding, but that didn’t make the skiing any less tough.

    “The course is so short that you hit those hills three times, and that’s a lot of climbing,” Tarling said. “The pain is all over.”

    The fans were out in force, too. The final climb was lined with coaches and onlookers packed shoulder-to-shoulder, waving flags and screaming in a half-dozen different languages.

    “I kind of knew they weren’t cheering for me,” Patterson said, since he wasn’t getting very much encouragement in English. “But it was still pretty sweet to hear them all.”

    Crowds lining the trail on the course's final big climb
    Crowds lining the trail on the course's final big climb

    After two of four races down here, Whitcomb said that the best from his athletes is still to come.

    “We have juniors that can be in the top five,” he said.

    With some illness working its way around the team, Whitcomb added that “both Patterson and Norris felt like they were 80 percent today.” Kornfield is also still recovering from a fever.

    Norris, though, should be on his way up, and Friday’s 20k pursuit should suit him very well after his recent fourth place in the U.S. Nationals 30k classic.

    “Hopefully [today’s race] will warm me up for that,” he said.

    Link to full results.