From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
Norway’s Astrid Øyre Slind grew up in a skiing family and has been competing her whole life. But she didn’t break through at the highest level, on the international World Cup circuit, until her mid-30s. She’s now been a top competitor on the World Cup for the past two seasons and is expected to be a major contender at the Olympics this winter, and she joins Devon and Nat for an interview.
Questions? Feedback? Suggestions for guests? Email us: devon[at]fasterskier.com and nat[at]fasterskier.com.
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/03/Screen-Shot-2018-03-16-at-11.25.10-AM.jpg")
FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals (Falun, Sweden): Freestyle sprints
In the last sprint of the season and the first race of the three-day World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden’s Hanna Falk and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won their respective 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint finals, while Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Klæbo claimed the season-long Sprint Crystal Globes and Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. placed third in the Sprint World Cup.
Falk started Friday by topping the women’s qualifier on home turf in 2:59.88 minutes, 1.65 seconds ahead of American Jessie Diggins, who qualified in second. Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva qualified third (+2.73), while American Sadie Bjornsen raced to the fourth-fastest qualifying time (+2.96), ahead of Norway’s Marit Bjørgen in fifth (+3.72).
Falk then won the first quarterfinal and first semifinal before taking control and dusting the field in the women’s final. She essentially led the final from start to finish, but slowed her pace and the five women behind her as she ascended the last climb. As she reached the 180-degree turn at the top, Falk launched into high gear, leaving the rest of the field chasing. Bjørgen was closest to her in second, but still several meters back, as they descended down into the stadium, and Falk skated away from her pursuers for her fourth-career World Cup win (and first victory in Falun) in 3:08.25. Sweden’s 23-year-old Jonna Sundling came on strong in the finishing straight for her first World Cup podium in second (+0.53), Bjørgen took third, and Sweden had three in the top four with Anna Dyvik in fourth (+1.72).
Norway’s Silje Øyre Slind finished fifth (+4.3), and Caldwell, who had qualified for the heats in 16th then won her quarterfinal and advanced in third in the second semifinal, placed sixth overall (+6.99).
Four American women posted top-20 qualifying times, with Kikkan Randall advancing as well in 18th. Diggins placed seventh overall after finishing third in the first semifinal, 0.42 seconds behind Falk in first and just 0.08 seconds behind Sundling, who advanced to the final in second.
Bjornsen was ninth on the day after placing fifth in that semifinal, 0.85 seconds out of first. Randall finished 15th overall after placing third in her quarterfinal, 3.14 seconds behind Diggins, who won that heat.
Also for the U.S, Ida Sargent missed the top 30 needed to qualify in 36th, as did Rosie Brennan in 49th, Caitlin Patterson in 63rd, Liz Stephen in 66th, Kaitlynn Miller in 69th, and Rosie Frankowski in 75th.
Canada’s Emily Nishikawa placed 40th, Dahria Beatty was 48th, Cendrine Browne 60th, and Zina Kocher 71st.
![](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/03/Screen-Shot-2018-03-16-at-11.31.42-AM.jpg")
In the men’s race, Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov qualified first in 2:36.23, 0.46 seconds ahead of Klæbo in second. Klæbo then won the first quarterfinal, first semifinal, and you guessed it, the final as well, backing off before crossing the finish line for the last time in 2:37.03.
Italy’s Federico Pellegrino powered past France’s Lucas Chanavat in the finishing stretch of the final to claim second, 0.39 seconds behind Klæbo. Chanavat completed the podium in third (+1.76), Finland’s Ristomatti Hakola finished fourth (+3.26), and Sweden’s Oskar Svensson and Teodor Peterson placed fifth (+3.88) and sixth (+6.17), respectively.
Two American men qualified for the heats, with Simi Hamilton advancing in 13th and Kevin Bolger in 29th. Hamilton went on to place 14th on the day after finishing third in the first quarterfinal, 0.61 seconds behind Klæbo. In his second-career World Cup sprint, Bolger placed 30th overall after finishing sixth in his quarterfinal, 2.21 seconds behind Peterson in first.
In the overall Sprint World Cup, Klæbo took his second-straight title by a whopping 243 points over Pellegrino in second, while Falla won her third-straight Sprint Crystal Globe by 78 points over Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, who was out sick for Friday’s race. Nilsson joined her at the Sprint World Cup podium ceremony on Friday, as did Caldwell, who achieved her best overall sprint standing in third.
Falla placed eighth overall on the day after being eliminated in the semifinals (she finished fourth behind Falk, Sundling and Diggins, respectively).
For the U.S., Erik Bjornsen narrowly missed qualifying in 31st, Andy Newell placed 43rd, Paddy Caldwell was 60th, David Norris 84th, and Scott Patterson 87th.
For Canada, Julien Locke placed 32nd, Alex Harvey 34th, Devon Kershaw 74th, and Graeme Killick 81st.
Results:
Women: Qualifier | Final | Women’s Sprint World Cup (final standings)
Men: Qualifier | Final | Men’s Sprint World Cup (final standings)
![The women's freestyle team sprint podium at the PyeongChang World Cup on Sunday in South Korea, with Sweden's Elin Mohlin and Maria Nordström (c) in first, Norway's Anna Svensen and Silje Øyre Slind (l) in second, and USA I's Ida Sargent and Sophie Caldwell (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/C35Svs_UcAAV_m3.jpg-large-e1486340853831.jpeg")
It was a sprint course that catered to climbers. For those tuning into the televised event, it might have even been mistaken as a final-stage climb, with two back-to-back, 20-meter-long uphills taking most of the competition screen time.
Maybe that’s why during all three of her legs in Sunday’s 6 x 1.4-kilometer freestyle team sprint, American distance specialist Liz Stephen stole the front-runner spotlight.
![The women's World Cup 15 k skiathlon podium on Saturday in PyeongChang, South Korea, with Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk (c) in first, American Liz Stephen (l) in second, and Japan's Masako Ishida (r) in third. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Ishida04022017vt0031.jpg")
Even with the shallower World Cup field competing in PyeongChang, South Korea, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) distance skier was having a weekend. For the first time in three years, Stephen advanced to the World Cup sprint heats on Friday and earned her seventh individual World Cup podium on Saturday.
Teaming up with Caitlin Patterson on the second U.S. team on Sunday, Stephen was leading the likes of USST sprinter Ida Sargent, Norway’s Silje Øyre Slind, Sweden’s Maria Nordström, and Slovenia’s Anamarija Lampič (the winner of Friday’s classic sprint).
“If it would have been a flat course today there would have been no chance,” Stephen said on the phone after. “I need a course like this, for sure.”
With the 1.4 k course housing a pair of hard-hitting hills, Patterson and Stephen were causing the field — including their compatriots Sophie Caldwell and Sargent skiing for the U.S. first team — to scramble throughout the final’s six laps.
After skiing in the back of the pack for most her first leg, the 27-year-old Patterson had taken over the lead from Caldwell, Norway’s Anna Svendsen, and Russia’s Anna Medvedeva by the end of Lap 1.
Stephen took charge in the second leg, leaving Slind, Sargent and Nordström fighting to keep up with her high tempo on the hills.
![The women's 1.4 k classic sprint podium on Friday at the pre-Olympic PyeongChang World Cup in South Korea, with Slovenia's Anamarija Lampič (c) in first, Norway’s Silje Øyre Slind (l) in second, and American Ida Sargent (r) in third. It was the first time on the World Cup podium for all three athletes. (Photo: FIS Cross-Country/Twitter)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/C3vOANtUYAENIZE.jpg")
“I was skiing with Liz all day … and I was just trying to hold on for dear life,” Sargent, who placed third in the classic sprint to start the long weekend, said on the phone. “[This was] probably by far the hardest course I’ve ever done. It felt more like a distance race than a sprint. Normally in a sprint race I hop skate up the hills and I don’t think I hop skated at all today.”
With Nordström maneuvering around Stephen just before the exchange zone, it was Sweden’s Elin Mohlin out first for the third leg, followed by Patterson and Caldwell. A fall had forced Slind to from a second place positioning to last by her hand off to Svendsen.
“On my first leg I managed to fall in the curve before the stadium,” Slind said according to a International Ski Federation (FIS) press release. “Afterwards I spent a lot of energy to get in contention with the leading group. There was no space for resting on the course.”
As Caldwell explained, her tactic for the final was to spend as much time in the draft as possible.
“This sprint course is one of the hardest ones we’ve ever encountered and we knew doing it three times in a row was going to be really tough,” Caldwell wrote in an email. “In the final I wanted to do more following and try to hang when moves were made.”
Patterson continued to pace the field from the front, putting Stephen once again in the lead for the fourth leg.
As Stephen approached the second hill, both Sargent and Nordström surged to her left. By the top, it appeared as if Sargent would make her way to the front.
Neither Sargent or Nordström, however, managed to take the lead before the exchange to the fifth leg.
With the lead back to Patterson, Caldwell followed closely in second, Mohlin in third, Slovenia’s Katja Visnar in fourth and Svendsen in fifth.
“I’m really proud of how both of our teams skied today,” Caldwell wrote. “Liz and Caitlin proved that distance skiers can also rock on this course and in team sprints in general, and it was so cool to have two teams fighting for the podium.”
On the second climb, Visnar made her move, sweeping around Patterson’s right. Caldwell and Patterson held on for the chase along with Mohlin and Svendsen.
Yet, in the exchange for the final leg, it was Stephen once again who emerged first from the crowd charging. By the end of the first climb, she had put close to a seven-meter gap on the rest of the field, Slind, Sargent, Nordström in hot pursuit.
Midway through the second climb, however, Slind and Nordström had regained contact with Stephen, moving around her at the top.
“My strategy the whole day was to go hard and hope that I could kill people before the last lap, and it almost worked, but not quite,” Stephen said.
A battle for first began between Sweden and Norway, while a second battle between the two U.S. teams began for third. Sweden outskied Norway, with Nordström crossing in a time of 20:37.11 for the win. Slind crossed 1.71 seconds later for second place.
“I was nervous when Maria Nordström raced at the end, but I know she is strong and I hoped she would make it,” Mohlin told Langd.se, according to a Norwegian translation.
Still head to head closing in on the final 100-meter stretch were the Americans, neither willing to budge, until the finish line, where Sargent outlunged Stephen by 0.35 seconds for third, 6.11 seconds out of first.
“I was trying to stick with Liz going up the hill, cause I knew if I could hold on on the hill, the downhill, and the sprint to the finish would be my strength,” Sargent said. “It was really fun to be on the podium with [Sophie], and to race with Liz and Caitlin in the final.”
Despite just barely missing the podium, Stephen was pleased with the performance, it being her first time competing in a team sprint in nearly eight years.
“There was a moment when I thought it was possible that both of our teams could be on the podium,” Stephen said. “I skied the day the best that I could and I’m really happy with the result.”
![The women's 4 x 3.3 k relay podium on the final day of 2017 Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, with Russia (c) in first, Italy (l) in second, and the U.S. (with Hailey Swirbul, Julia Kern, Hannah Halvorsen, and Katharine Ogden) in third. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/SMF1225.jpg")
FIS Nordic Junior World Championships (Midway, Utah): Junior relays
Hailey Swirbul, Julia Kern, Hannah Halvorsen, and Katharine Ogden on the podium. That’s right. Two days after Ogden became the first American to earn an individual medal at Junior World Championships, those four U.S. junior women listed above did the same, placing third in the 4 x 3.3-kilometer relay on the last day of 2017 Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah.
The team credited their lucky socks, similar to the red-white-and-blue striped socks the U.S. women’s World Cup team wears for relays and team events.
“We gave everything we got,” Kern said in a televised post-race interview.
“It’s the dream,” Ogden said.
In fourth at the last exchange, Ogden anchored the team to third, 25.8 seconds behind Russia, which won in 34:45.3 minutes with Polina Nekrasova, Lidia Durkina, Anna Zherebyateva, and Mariya Istomina.
Italy placed second (+20.6) with Martina Bellini, Anna Comarella, Francesca Franchi, and Christina Pittin.
Canada finished 12th (+4:41.3) with Natalie Hynes, Lisle Compton, India McIsaac, and Annika Richardson.
[UPDATED] In the junior men’s 4 x 5 k relay that followed, Norway’s Thomas Helland Larsen outlasted Russia’s Vladislav Vechkanov by 0.4 seconds for the team win in 49:36.1.
Norway’s gold-medal team included Herman Martens Meyer, Jon Rolf Skamo Hope, Harald Østberg Amundsen, and Larsen, while Russia took silver with Egor Kazarinov, Kirill Kilivnyuk, Yaroslav Rybochkin, and Vechkanov.
France rounded out the podium in third (+1:05), with Martin Collet, Camille Laude, Hugo Lapels, and Arnaud Chautemps.
The U.S. finished ninth (+4:28.8) with Bill Harmeyer, Kam Husain, Wyatt Gebhardt, and Hunter Wonders, and Canada followed in 10th (+5:21.6) with Antoine Blais, Ryan Jackson, Philippe Boucher, and Gareth Williams. Twelve teams finished the men’s relay, the final race of 2017 Junior World Championships.
***
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (PyeongChang, South Korea): Freestyle team sprint
![The women's freestyle team sprint podium at the PyeongChang World Cup on Sunday in South Korea, with Sweden's Elin Mohlin and Maria Nordström (c) in first, Norway's Anna Svensen and Silje Øyre Slind (l) in second, and USA I's Ida Sargent and Sophie Caldwell (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/C35Svs_UcAAV_m3.jpg-large.jpeg")
The U.S. women had one team on the podium and one just 0.35 seconds off of it on Sunday in the World Cup 6 x 1.4-kilometer freestyle team sprint in PyeongChang, South Korea.
USA I, with Sophie Caldwell and Ida Sargent, skied in third for most of the race and ultimately finished third, 6.11 seconds behind Sweden’s Elin Mohlin and Maria Nordström in first (in 20:37.11 minutes). Norway took second, 1.71 seconds back, with Anna Svensen and Silje Øyre Slind, while USA I edged USA II, with Caitlin Patterson and Liz Stephen for third. Patterson and Stephen ended up fourth (+6.46), ahead of Slovenia’s Katja Visnar and Anamarija Lampic in fifth (+14.46).
Fifteen women’s teams competed on Sunday, with 10 of them reaching the final. Canada placed 14th overall with Annika Hicks and Sadie White.
In the men’s 6 x 1.5 k freestyle team sprint, Russia’s Gleb Retivykh picked up his second win in in PyeongChang, after winning Friday’s classic sprint. He teamed up with Andrey Parfenov for the victory in 19:34.11, beating France (Baptiste Gros/Lucas Chanavat) by 0.03 seconds in a photo finish.
Russia had two teams on the podium with Russia II’s Artem Maltsev and Nikita Kriukov in third (+5.52). Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton (USA I) fell off the leaders’ pace to finish fourth (+24.23), 18.71 seconds off the podium.
USA II, with Scott Patterson and Matt Gelso, finished ninth (+54.85) in the final, and Canada’s Jess Cockney and Len Valjas placed 13th of 14 teams.
***
![SMS Elite's Anne Hart catching Nakkertok's Zoe Williams in the interval start classic, day two of Eastern Championships. (Photo: Ian Austen)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/DSC_6759.jpg")
The NorAm mini tour at the Nakkertok Nordic Centre wrapped up with freestyle pursuits.
In the men’s 20 k, AWCA’s Russell Kennedy posted the fastest time of 53:42.68 to move up from third to take the overall victory in 1:33.22. Lappe Nordic’s Andy Shields started first but couldn’t hold off Kennedy, finishing 36 seconds behind with a 6th best time, 1:01.46 slower. AWCA’s Dominique Moncion-Groulx wrapped up a strong weekend with the fourth best time of day, 37.92 back, to take third overall, 58.53 behind Kennedy.
SMS Elite’s Anne Hart won the women’s 15 k pursuit in dominant style, starting first and winning time of day in 47:36.10 for an overall time of 1:17:39. AWCA’s Maya MacIsaac-Jones started third and finished second with the second best time of day, 31.36 seconds back for a combined deficit of 51.39 seconds. CNEPH’s Sophie Carrier-Laforte started second and ended third, 2:14.81 down after a sixth best time of day 2:05.47 back.
Results: Pursuit | Full Weekend
![The women's World Cup 15 k skiathlon podium on Saturday in PyeongChang, South Korea, with Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk (c) in first, American Liz Stephen (l) in second, and Japan's Masako Ishida (r) in third. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Podium04022017vt0038.jpg")
Multiple race warmup and cool downs, managing hydration and caloric intake, moving at her max sprinting speed — more than once. It’s not often that American Liz Stephen feels the lingering effects of a World Cup sprint day. Her most recent memory was three years ago, when she qualified 22nd in Szklarska Poreba, Poland.
But this weekend’s three-day competition series in PyeongChang, South Korea, challenged the distance specialist once again. With a smaller World Cup field than usual, Stephen qualified 29th in Friday’s classic sprint and advanced quarterfinals, where she raced in the first heat of the day.
In what ended up being the fastest women’s quarterfinal, Stephen pushed through Friday’s hill-dominant sprint course and crossed fifth for 25th overall. The back-to-back sprint experience, however, left the 30-year-old Stephen with a little less energy than she would have liked as she entered Saturday’s 15-kilometer skiathlon.
![American Liz Stephen (2) skiing at the front of the women's 15 k skiathlon on Saturday, alongside Norway's Silje Øyre Slind (1) and Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk (3), at the World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Soboleva04022017vt0039.jpg")
“I think I was feeling yesterday’s sprint race a bit, as I did twice as many rounds as I usually do!” Stephen joked in an email.
Yet, standing at the start in bib 2, behind Norway’s Silje Øyre Slind in bib 1, Stephen wasn’t going to let a little soreness stop her from racing to Saturday’s skiathlon podium.
After Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk gapped the front by close to 20 seconds in the first two kilometers of the classic leg, the American held on tight to the lead chase group, striding even with a medley of skiers, including Slind, Japan’s Masako Ishida, Norway’s Anna Svendsen, Sweden’s Maria Nordström, and Germany’s Elisabeth Schicho.
Stephen came through the exchange in fifth position, a little over a minute behind the race leader Kowalczyk and 12 seconds back from the second place skier, Ishida.
“I was afraid I skied little too hard in the classic portion,” Stephen said, according to an International Ski Federation (FIS) press release. “I wanted to stay with the leading group in the classical part not to fall back.”
Skate skis on, Stephen quickly caught and surpassed Svendsen and Schicho by the 8.4 k mark, rejoining Ishida. With over a minute separating her and Ishida from Kowalczyk, the battle for second began. Around the 10 k mark, Stephen made her move. Powering past Masako, Stephen started her second hunt, this time for the Polish skier.
But Kowalczyk’s early classic-leg surge and strong skating staved off any attempts from Stephen.
“Liz was able to take some time out of her, but not significant time,” USST Head Coach Chris Grover said on the phone. “So that was impressive racing by Kowalczyk.”
![Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk winning her first World Cup in three years on Saturday, the women's 15 k skiathlon at in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Kowalczyk04022017vt0027.jpg")
Kowalczyk ultimately finished first for the win in a time of 43:54.7. The victory marked her 50th World Cup win and first individual World Cup victory since 2014.
“It has been a long time since I have been on the World Cup podium,” Kowalczyk said, according to FIS. “I was quite surprised to see how well I skated.”
Finishing exactly 56 seconds behind Kowalczyk was Stephen in second place. The result was Stephen’s best individual result since 2015, when she placed second in the 10 k freestyle race in Rybinsk, Russia.
“It’s hard not to feel happy when you get a podium finish!” she said, according to a U.S. Ski Team press release. “However, I didn’t feel like I had as much energy as I wanted to have today, but it was enough to hold onto second.”
In her first podium appearance since 2009, Ishida finished 18.8 seconds after Stephen in third (+1:14.8).
Just missing the podium by 6.6 seconds was American Caitlin Patterson in fourth (+1:21.4). Though a tangle on the first hill of her classic leg pushed Patterson back to 13th, the 27-year-old Craftsbury Green Racing Project skier was able to reconnect with the top 1o by the 2 k mark.
Unconcerned with Kowalczyk’s blistering pace, Patterson focused on the chase pack. By the time she reached the ski change, she was positioned in seventh. Her transition to skate skis smooth and energy still strong, Patterson began to pick people off.
She caught Nordström, who had been 10 seconds ahead of her at the exchange, as well as Schicho and Svendsen, both of whom were close to 30 seconds ahead of her when they switched to skate skis.
![Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) en route to a career-best World Cup result of fourth in the women's 15 k skiathlon in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Patterson04022017vt0067.jpg")
“Caitlin Patterson was really impressive,” Grover said. “She was kind of hovering around seventh or eighth for most of the race, and then really in the last lap, really started to pick people off, including right at the very end to get all the way up to fourth.”
Feeling fairly well adjusted to the time difference, and appreciative of the low-altitude racing, Patterson was proud of her race effort. Her only issue being the seconds that separated her from the podium.
“When I look at the results and see how close third place was ahead of me, I can’t help but wish I could have somehow gone faster sooner!” Patterson wrote in an email. “A true sign of how much this makes me hungry for more, though I know I gave it everything I had out there today.”
The third American woman on Saturday was Liz Guiney in 13th (+2:21.7). The PyeongChang World Cup marks Guiney’s third week of World Cup racing and, while this weekend’s field is not as strong as the ones she recently raced against in Sweden, the result was still a little unexpected for Guiney.
“I’m very happy with my race today!” Guiney, 25, wrote in an email. “With the weaker World Cup field, it was a good opportunity to score some points, but I think I surprised myself by being within reach of the top 10.”
The last two races mark Guiney’s first World Cup points, with her best individual finish prior to this weekend 49th in the Falun 15 k classic mass start.
“Last weekend in the Falun 15k, I got a little too excited out of the start and paid for it later in the race, so my goal today was to ski my own race,” Guiney wrote. “I was really psyched to cross the line and find out that Liz Stephen placed 2nd and Caitlin (my GRP teammate) was 4th, which is a big breakout result for her!”
Two Canadian women also earned their first World Cup top 30’s on Saturday, with Annika Hicks (Alberta World Cup Academy) placing 26th (+5:17.8) followed by Sadie White (NTDC Thunder Bay) in 29th (+6:54.7).
Racers return to the race venue tomorrow for Sunday’s freestyle team sprint.
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Liz Guiney, Caitlin Patterson and Jessica Yeaton.)
Sometimes just being there is half the battle, as the saying goes.
No Maiken Caspersen Falla. No Stina Nilsson. On Friday at the site of next year’s Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, three athletes who had never made it to a World Cup podium before prevailed in the women’s 1.4-kilometer classic sprint.
And right there was Ida Sargent of the U.S. Ski Team (USST) in third place, smiling together with Slovenia’s Anamarija Lampič, who won her first sprint final in a time of 3:41.97 minutes (just 1.79 seconds ahead of Sargent), and Norway’s Silje Øyre Slind rounding out the picture in second place (+1.60).
“I’m really excited about the podium and it hasn’t really set in yet,” Sargent commented on the best result of her career in an email to FasterSkier, instantly thinking of those who helped her get there. “I feel so grateful to have such an awesome team behind me both on the USST and at home in Craftsbury.”
![Ida Sargent racing earlier this season at the World Cup in Lillehammer, Norway. (Photo: Toko/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/12/e17c1cf2-e46a-4d11-bb42-b1ca284b2dc7.jpg")
Sargent has started in over 100 individual World Cup races, three International Ski Federation (FIS) World Championships, and the 2014 Winter Olympics. But this was the first podium finish for the 29-year-old Vermont native, and it had been a long time in the making.
Sure, not all of the best skiers made the long trip to South Korea. In fact, while a number of the best sprinters still packed their ski bags, none of the top-25 ranked athletes in the women’s overall World Cup standings before this weekend did, including Norway’s Falla and Sweden’s Nilsson, who combined have also won 13 out of the last 15 sprint races.
Those athletes opted to prepare for the upcoming World Championships in Lahti, Finland, by taking a training break or starting at the Norwegian and Swedish national championships also going on this week. But that was their choice, while the women smiling atop of the podium in PyeongChang had decided differently.
As any professional in a regular job can relate to, “showing up is 80 percent of life” – a quote commonly attributed to filmmaker Woody Allen.
And the shrunken field should not distract from the exciting heats and convincing fashion in which Sargent, along with her teammate Sophie Caldwell, qualified and advanced through the rounds in the night race under floodlights, in a beautiful and brand-new arena for the first cross-country World Cup event ever hosted by South Korea.
Both have proven before that they can hang with the best, even when all World Cup regulars stand at the start line. Sargent has achieved five top-10 sprint finishes in her career, including a fifth place in Kuusamo, Finland, for the 2014 season opening. Caldwell won a classic sprint during the Tour de Ski last season in Oberstdorf, Germany. (The other athlete to break the streak of Falla and Nilsson was Norway’s Heidi Weng, who in December 2016 won the classic sprint in Lillehammer, Norway.)
Earlier in the day, Caldwell had the fastest qualifying time around the 1.4 k course, which features a steady climb out of the arena soon followed by a tricky right downhill turn into the next steep climb that later gave a number of athletes problems during the heats, and another downhill back into the stadium with a sharp corner that caused some athletes to ski wide left out of the V-boards marking the course.
“It’s probably the hardest sprint course for women that maybe we’ve ever encountered,” U.S. Ski Team (USST) Head Coach Chris Grover said in a phone interview from Korea with FasterSkier. “It almost has no flat on it except for some double poling out of the start and some double poling into the finish. You really just are spending all your time climbing. And such a small difference between the women’s course and the men’s course.”
Sargent qualified in fifth, 4.76 seconds back from Caldwell. She had to put up a bit of a fight in her quarterfinal, coming onto the finishing stretch with three other athletes still close by and spreading out into the lanes. Sargent poled hard and prevailed to win the heat in a photo finish by 0.03 seconds against Russia’s Elena Soboleva, keeping Slind and Slovenia’s Katja Višnar at bay all within less than half a second.
![Russia's Elena Soboleva leads Norway's Silje Øyre Slind (second from r), American Ida Sargent (second from l) and Slovenia's Katja Visnar during their quarterfinal of the women's classic sprint at the World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Visnar03022017vt0123.jpg")
Then, Sargent placed second in her semifinal behind Lampič, edging Russia’s Alisa Zhambalova in third with both timed at 0.5 seconds back, though the third place would also have been sufficient to advance.
“Both of the lucky losers came out of my quarterfinal and then the semifinal so the heats were really fast from the start, but I was able to learn a little with each one and tweak my strategy,” Sargent wrote of her progression through the heats.
“Ida just kept herself toward the front, and had some good double-pole finishes to keep advancing through the rounds,” Grover said. “And yeah, it was just the right course, the right day, good skis, great kick, great glide, it was just the right combo.”
Caldwell had even fewer problems than Sargent in her quarterfinal, quickly gapping the rest of the pack with Sweden’s Maria Nordström up the first climb out of the arena and finishing the heat in first place.
But then things did not fall her way in the semifinal.
“I’m really frustrated with how I skied the last corner of my semi,” Caldwell wrote in an email. “I was determined to make the final and was pretty mad with myself for giving it up on that last corner.”
Her main obstacle: Justyna Kowalczyk. The 34-year-old Polish ski star certainly carries a big name on the international scene with two Olympic gold medals, but due to persistent back problems, she has had to reduce her World Cup appearances in the last seasons, mostly focusing on a few classic races and ski marathons starting for the Norwegian professional team Santander.
But on Friday she was at the start in PyeongChang, qualifying in second position just 1.84 seconds behind Caldwell before winning her quarterfinal. In the semifinal, the two raced head to head. Initially Caldwell skied with Kowalczyk, but then lost all momentum when Sweden’s Nordström in front of her stumbled a bit and the rest of the pack caught up to them.
![American Sophie Caldwell chasing Sweden's Maria Nordström in Friday's 1.4 k classic sprint at the PyeongChang World Cup in South Korea. Caldwell finished the day in eighth overall, behind Nordström in seventh. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Nordstroem03022017vt0139.jpg")
“There was a moment of panic coming off the downhill into that second hill when the Swede and Kowalczyk almost fell and I was right behind them,” Caldwell explained. “I got bumped into a pretty far track on the outside and we had lost most of our speed at that point.”
But Caldwell kept fighting and managed to catch back up to Kowalczyk on the final downhill into the arena with the best curve technique and good skis, but ran onto her when they both took the same lane into the finish, not able to speed up as much as she had wanted to. She got passed outside by Slind who advanced in second place as well as by Nordström, who like Caldwell also missed out on the best two lucky loser times.
“I pushed well over the top and carried my speed through the corners, positioning myself exactly where I wanted to be in the inside track,” Caldwell wrote. “Going up and over the little bump in the stadium, I let Kowalczyk get just enough ahead of me so that she was able to cut in front of me before the finish lanes and then two other people whipped by. I wish I could do it again and realize that’s part of ski racing, but it’s a bummer to screw it up tactically on a day I was feeling good and skiing well.”
“For Sophie to win the qualifier was cool,” Grover said. “I believe that was the first time she has won the qualifier.”
The Final
Lampič was already smiling broadly in the start gate of her quarterfinal and semifinal, where she advanced in second and first, respectively. But back then she couldn’t yet know that her day would turn out even better.
![Slovenia's Anamarija Lampic (10) celebrating her first World Cup victory and podium on Friday in the as she wins the women's 1.4 k classic sprint final in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/Kowalczyk03022017vt0174.jpg")
In the final, initially the others let Sargent set the tempo out of the arena, but Lampič passed her by on the penultimate hill, with Slind and Kowalczyk also pushing hard to create a small gap.
“She skied powerful over the top of the second big climb and set herself up for the downhill,” Grover said. “There’s a really tough downhill corner coming into the stadium, and she skied that great. She really carried her momentum well through that … Other people crashed, other people went outside the V-boards because they couldn’t control the corner there.”
“I had figured out a good line on that last downhill and I also had very fast skis so I used it as a chance to move up each time,” Sargent wrote of the race situation. “I think I was behind Kowalczyk in the final at that part but I was hoping if I skied it well I could gain back some time.”
Turning the last corner into the finishing stretch, Lampič was several meters ahead with none of her competitors able to challenge her anymore.
“It is unbelievable I won today,” Lampič said, according to a FIS press release. “I hoped to make it to the final but to win, it’s a dream. I skied well in the downhill. I managed to get a gap on the other girls. After the curve in the stadium I knew I had a lead and I could enjoy the home stretch.”
With her win, Lampič currently also leads the U23 standings in the World Cup.
As they double poled hard the finish, Slind passed Sargent on the lane to her right on the last meters, but Sargent held off the final charge from Kowalczyk by half a second to claim the third place and her first World Cup podium.
“It was tough today, the course was hard but it was hard for everybody,” the 28-year-old Slind, who is not a regular member of Norway’s senior national team on the World Cup, told FIS. “I got tired in the big climb but managed to ski the downhill well. I had some power left and was pushing hard on the homestretch.”
Kowalczyk finished fourth (+2:35), Russia’s Alisa Zhambalova placed fifth (+4.24), and Lampic’s teammate Višnar was sixth (+17.10).
A jubilant Sargent raised her arms as she crossed the finish line, and on the small victory lap of the podium finishers she skied to the side fence to hug with Caldwell and her other teammates, who had waited in the arena to watch her final heat.
“It was pretty incredible to watch Ides get her first podium,” Caldwell wrote. “We were all lining the finish stretch cheering for her and of course I had to go congratulate her. Your first podium is something you remember forever and Ida is a hard worker who deserved that and I was happy I could be there to see it!”
In recent years, the U.S. Ski Team has put a number of female athletes onto the podium. Kikkan Randall. Jessie Diggins. Sophie Caldwell. Liz Stephen posted some of the best hill-climb times in several editions of the Tour de Ski. And a month ago, Sadie Bjornsen also reached a third place. Now, Sargent joined their ranks.
“It has been a goal of mine for a long time to be on the podium so it was a very special day!” Sargent wrote. “I’ve been inspired by so many fast teammates, so happy to follow in their footsteps!”
All five U.S. women in the heats
But it was not just a good race day for Sargent and Caldwell, with the U.S. team managing to put all of its starters into the heats.
“It was a really small women’s field,” Grover noted, “so it was not a huge surprise that all of those five [women] made it in. But there were some massive spreads in times. You saw right away in the quarterfinals that they were getting pretty spaced out.”
Sargent’s Craftsbury Green Racing Project teammate Liz Guiney qualified in 25th (+20.74 to Caldwell). She then went on to place fifth in her quarterfinal (+2:18), keeping Finland’s Mona Liisa Nousiainen behind her to finish the day in 24th place overall. It was the best individual result in her first season of World Cup races so far.
“It’s really exciting to score World Cup points for the first time!” Guiney wrote in an email. “I recognize that this field is not the same as a normal World Cup field, but I guess you have to show up to score the points. … My season has been a bit up and down this year, so I’m hoping that this race was a good sign that things are headed in the up direction!”
In terms of the sprint course, she described it as both fun and hard.
“The climbs on the sprint course are pretty steep and sustained, which I think is great for a classic sprint, to discourage double poling without kick wax,” Guiney wrote. “The first downhill is fine since it’s banked, but conditions were fast on the second downhill and it definitely felt different (faster) than skiing it the previous days. I actually skidded, and a few people fell, but the most successful skiers in the rounds were picking a good line and stepping it to carry momentum.”
Liz Stephen of the USST was the highest-ranked athlete in the overall World Cup standings, male or female, who made the trip to Korea (but with Slind’s second place, she surpassed Stephen).
Stephen, a distance specialist, will focus on Saturday’s skiathlon, but took the opportunity for a sprint race on Friday and qualified in 29th (+23.59). It was the first time she managed to qualify for the heats in three seasons. Smiling and waving to the fans at the start of her fast quarterfinal heat together with the eventual finalists Sargent, Slind and Visnar, she quickly fell to the back of the pack and eventually finished fifth (+19.10) for the 25th place overall.
The third Craftsbury member, Caitlin Patterson qualified in 20th (+17.90) and placed sixth in her quarterfinal (+21.81), which included the eventual winner Lampič as well as the finalist Zhambalova. With that, she achieved 27th place overall and the fourth top-30 result of her career, though her race day could have gone even better.
“I am a notorious slow starter, and I was determined to start quickly, but I still ended up in 6th place by the bottom of the first hill,” Patterson wrote in an email. “I was frustrated near the top of that hill, as I was boxed in behind the 4th and 5th place women, who were moving a little slowly, as the top 3 gapped us. After taking a bad line on the first downhill, I got stuck behind the same two girls on the 2nd hill, then jumped to an outer track and moved around them, accelerating to the top of the course and building a gap behind me.
“The 3 women leading the heat were a ways in front of me, but I was determined to do everything I could to close the gap, so I took the curvy downhill into the stadium really fast with no speed checking. I swung wide at the bottom, I think caught some grabby corduroy there, and before I knew it, crashed right at the bottom of the corner,” she continued. “I consider myself fairly good at downhills, but I think I was too focused on the women I was trying to catch, and not quite focused enough on the snow under my own feet. … It was a great experience to be in a heat on this level, but I was very frustrated with the fact that I took myself out, not to mention the poor positioning from earlier in the heat prior to the crash.”
Her goal to start the day had been to qualify and make the most of an opportunity to race in World Cup heats.
“I can’t say I expected that it would be easy to make the heats, even with the reduced field there are still lots of fast people here,” Patterson wrote. “I did believe that it would be possible though, and I met the goal of qualifying with a solid 22nd place.
“It’s fun to be in the top 30, but I don’t think it means a whole lot here at this Korean World Cup,” she wrote of her overall result. “The field is undoubtedly weak, and just top 30 doesn’t really make a splash compared to the many fantastic results of the strong US women’s team right now.”
Also racing in the heats was Jessica Yeaton of Alaska Pacific University, who internationally skis for Australia. She qualified in 30th (+26.29) and also finished 30th after placing sixth behind Stephen in the first quarterfinal (+20.1).
“Going into the race it was my goal to make the heats once I saw that the start list was smaller than usual,” Yeaton wrote in an email. “I thought it would be an awesome opportunity to practice skiing heats, and thought I might actually have a shot at it given the size of the field.
“My quarterfinal was fast, and I struggled to stay with the group over the top of the first hill,” she explained, “Although I am happy with my effort overall. Skiing head to head with some of the fastest qualifiers helped me realize my weaknesses with striding, and I am inspired to work on these as the Olympics approach.
“This result is very special for me, as skiing in the heats has always been a goal of mine that I have worked hard towards achieving,” she added.
Canada’s Annika Hicks (Alberta World Cup Academy) in 32nd (+32.96 to Caldwell’s time in the qualifier) and Sadie White (NTDC Thunder Bay) in 34th (+38.96) missed qualifying for the heats.
Due to the time difference, the athletes aside from Sargent and Caldwell could not be reached for comment before press time.
Racing continues on Saturday with the women’s and men’s 15/30 k skiathlons, followed by freestyle team sprints on Sunday.
“I’m not racing tomorrow and will rest up to race the team sprint on Sunday with Sophie,” Sargent wrote regarding her plans for the weekend.
— Jason Albert and Chelsea Little contributed
![Katharine Ogden (SMS/USST) finishing third for bronze in the women's 10 k skiathlon on Friday at 2017 Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. She is the first American to reach the podium in a Junior World Championships. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/02/SMF7229.jpg")
FIS Nordic Junior World Championships (Midway, Utah): 10/20 k skiathlon
A Junior World Championships medal has been on Katharine Ogden’s mind for some time — two years, to be exact.
“Every day in training, it’s kind of something that I think about. It’s the little thing that helps me push myself,” Ogden, a 19-year-old member of the Stratton Mountain School and U.S. Ski Team D-team, said in a post-race interview with the U.S. Ski Team on Friday. “Even in the middle of June, I’ll be like, ‘You know what I want to be? On the podium at World Juniors.’ ”
She did just that on Friday, racing to third in the women’s 10-kilometer skiathlon at 2017 Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. In doing so, she became the most successful American at World Juniors, surpassing Lindsey Williams’s previous best of fourth place in 2003.
Ogden finished 10.4 seconds behind the winner, Norway’s Marte Mæhlum Johansen, who finished first in 27:17.3 minutes. Sweden’s Ebba Andersson took second, 6.6 seconds back. Behind Ogden, Italy’s Anna Comarella placed fourth (+51.6) ahead of Finland’s Eveliina Piippo in fifth (+58.7).
Hailey Swirbul (University of Alaska Anchorage) was the second U.S. woman in 24th (+2:21.0), while Natalie Hynes (Whitehorse) led Canada in 28th (+3:11.3).
Also for Canada, India McIsaac (Rocky Mountain Racers) finished 30th (+3:13.8), Lisle Compton (NTDC Thunder Bay) was 33rd (+3:45.5) and Annika Richardson (NTDC Thunder Bay) 41st (+4:49.3).
Also for the U.S., Lauren Jortberg (Dartmouth) finished 37th (+4:04.5) and Taeler McCrerey (University of Denver) 38th (+4:07.5).
[UPDATED] In the men’s 20 k skiathlon that followed, Russia’s Vladislav Vechkanov notched his second gold of the week in 49:40.5, outlasting Norway’s Thomas Helland Larsen by 1.9 seconds. Norway had two on the podium with Harald Østberg Amundsen in third (+2.2).
Canada’s Gareth Williams (Telemark Race Team) was the top North American in 11th (+1:24.0) for his best result at his first Junior Worlds.
American Wyatt Gebhardt (Steamboat Springs WSC) followed in 12th (+1:42.7) for his second-straight top 20 and Hunter Wonders (Alaska Pacific University) also finished in the top 20 for the second-straight race in 18th (+1:57.9).
Canada’s Philippe Boucher (CNEPH) was 22nd (+3:15.7), Ryan Jackson (Team Hardwood) 31st (+3:52.5), and Remi Drolet (Black Jack) 49th (+6:57.3).
Also for the U.S., Kam Husain (SMS) placed 50th (+6:59), and Logan Diekmann (University of Utah) was 53rd (+7:47.3).
***
The NorAm series resumed at the Nakkertok Nordic Centre on Friday with Eastern Canadian Championships with classic technique sprints.
Alberta World Cup Academy’s Maya MacIsaac-Jones returned from U23s in time to win the 1.3 k A-final in 3:42.06, after qualifying sixth. Top qualifier Sophie Carrier-Laforte was second for CNEPH at her home event, 0.66 seconds behind. SMS Elite’s Anne Hart rounded out the podium at 3.40 seconds back.
On the men’s side, AWCA’s Dominique Moncion-Groulx qualified first before winning every heat on his way to victory in 3:14.84 on a slightly longer 1.4 k course. NTDC Thunder Bay’s Angus Foster was a close second, 0.09 seconds behind. Team R.A.D.’s Russell Kennedy was a comfortable third, 2.75 seconds back, on a day marked by some surprising eliminations.
The elite field is slightly smaller than usual with some athletes away in Soldier Hollow and PyeongChang. As many younger racers were stuck in school for the day, there are only about 500 starters for what is usually the largest FIS event in Canada.
***
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (PyeongChang, South Korea): Classic sprint
In the last month, we’ve seen two U.S. Ski Team members — Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen — on the World Cup podium. Add Ida Sargent to that list.
On Friday, the Vermont native raced to third in the women’s 1.4-kilometer classic sprint at the first-ever World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea. It was the first of three days of racing in PyeongChang, which will host the 2018 Winter Olympics next season.
Sargent qualified fifth (4.76 seconds behind her teammate Sophie Caldwell, who won the qualifier in 3:40.89 minutes) and went on to win her quarterfinal in a photo finish, then placed second her semifinal (also in a photo finish), edging Russia’s Alisa Zhambalova in third by less than 0.01 seconds.
Both advanced to the final, where Sargent ultimately finished third, 1.79 seconds behind Slovenia’s Anamarija Lampič, who won in 3:41.97. Norway’s Silje Øyre Slind took second (+1.6), just 0.19 seconds ahead of Sargent. For all three women, it was their first time on a World Cup podium.
Sargent beat out Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk for third by 0.56 seconds. Zhambalova finished fifth and Slovenia’s Katja Visnar was sixth (+17.1).
“I’m really excited about the podium and it hasn’t really set in yet,” Sargent wrote in an email on Friday. “It has been a goal of mine for a long time to be on the podium so it was a very special day! I’ve been inspired by so many fast teammates so happy to follow in their footsteps!”
All five U.S. women racing on Friday finished in the top 30 to qualify for the heats. Caldwell won the qualifier by 1.84 seconds over Kowalczyk, Caitlin Patterson qualified 22nd, Liz Guiney 25th and Liz Stephen 29th (Stephen’s first time making the heats in three years).
Jessica Yeaton, who races for Australia but trains with Alaska Pacific University, took the last qualifying spot in 30th (+26.29).
Canada’s Annika Hicks and Sadie White missed qualifying in 32nd (+32.96) and 34th (+38.96), respectively, out of 36 women.
Caldwell won her quarterfinal but finished fourth in her semifinal (behind Slind, Kowalczyk, and Sweden’s Maria Nordström, respectively) to miss advancing to the final. She placed eighth overall.
Guiney placed 24th overall after finishing fifth in her quarterfinal, Stephen was 25th after taking fifth in the same quarterfinal as Sargent (where Yeaton finished sixth for 30th overall), and Patterson was 27th after finishing sixth in her quarterfinal.
***
Both Canada’s Len Valjas and American Andy Newell reached the final in the men’s 1.5 k classic sprint on Friday, where they raced to fourth and sixth, respectively.
Valjas started the day by qualifying in second, 1.97 seconds behind Russia’s Alexander Panzhinskiy, who topped the qualifier in 3:26.78. The Canadian went on to advance in second from his quarterfinal and fourth as a lucky loser from the first semifinal. In the final, he missed out on the podium in a photo finish with Russia’s Andrey Parfenov, who took third, 0.01 seconds ahead of him.
Meanwhile, Newell qualified seventh (+5.18) and took second in both his quarterfinal and semifinal (finishing the second semifinal 0.34 seconds behind Panzhinskiy in first).
In the final, Russia’s 25-year-old Gleb Retivykh pulled off his first World Cup victory and podium with a 0.3-second win over Norway’s Sondre Turvoll Fossli in 3:30.79. Retivykh qualified sixth (+4.53) then won his quarterfinal and placed third in the same semifinal as Valjas, advancing as the other lucky loser.
“I had wait six years for my first victory and it is great,” Retivykh said, according to an International Ski Federation (FIS) press release.
Russia had two on the podium with Parfenov in third (+0.73), just ahead of Valjas. The third Russian in the final, Panzhinsky ended up fifth (+1.49), ahead of Newell in sixth (+17.19)
Three Canadian men qualified for the heats, with Jess Cockney in 16th (+10.24) and Simon Lapointe in 25th (+14.15). Bob Thompson missed 30th by one-hundredth of a second in 31st (+16.95), and Julien Locke was 36th (+17.9).
Three Americans qualified as well, with Simi Hamilton in 12th (+8.26) and Matt Gelso in 29th (+16.66). Distance skiers Scott Patterson and Noah Hoffman finished 44th (+24.21) and 48th (+25.28) out of 55.
Cockney reached the semifinals after winning his quarterfinal. In the second semifinal with Newell, he placed fifth, 5.44 seconds behind Panzhinskiy, for 10th overall.
In Cockney’s quarterfinal, Hamilton crashed and finished fourth (+41.9) for 17th overall.
Canada’s 23-year-old Lapointe finished sixth in his quarterfinal to place 27th, besting his previous World Cup best by 43 places. Gelso took 29th for his first-ever World Cup points after placing sixth in his quarterfinal.
Results:
![Norway's Maiken Caspersen Falla (pink headband) leads out of the start of the women's 1.2 k freestyle sprint final on Sunday in Beitostølen, Norway. (From left to right) Norway's Mari Eide, Slovenia's Vesna Fabjan, Falla, Norway's Heidi Weng, Slovenia's Anamarija Lampic, and Norway's Silje Øyre Slind all reached the final. (Photo: Aleks Tangen)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/DSC_0252-1.jpg")
BEITOSTØLEN, Norway — For the reigning Sprint World Cup champion who never lost a classic sprint last season (and placed first or second in all but one World Cup skate sprint), Sunday’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint was about starting where she left off.
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla did just that, qualifying first then cruising through the heats to win the women’s freestyle sprint on Sunday in Beitostølen. Part of a three-race series, it was held on the final day of Norway’s International Ski Federation (FIS) season-opening weekend — one weekend before the World Cup starts in Finland.
Falla, 26, took control of the day early, winning the prologue in 2:47.79 minutes. Afterward, she told NRK that she was satisfied with the result and that it was fun to race the sprint prologue. She carried her momentum through her quarterfinal and semifinal, advancing in the top two in each round, before beating Slovenia’s Vesna Fabjan in the final with a time of 2:42.3. Fabjan finished 0.2 seconds later in second, and Norway’s Mari Eide outlasted Heidi Weng for the final spot on the podium in third (+1.6). Weng, one of Norway’s top women who placed second in both distance races on Friday and Saturday, placed fourth (+2.4), while Slovenia’s Anamarija Lampic finished fifth (+3.2) and Norway’s Silje Øyre Slind was sixth (+5.2) in the final.
In an interview with FasterSkier on Saturday, Weng pointed that she didn’t qualify for the heats at last year’s sprint opener in Beitostølen. On Sunday, she qualified soundly in seventh, 4.2 seconds behind Falla.
Falla skated every heat with good control and technique, and kept her challengers from posing any real threats. Out of the start, the six finalists darted off the line at a high pace, and Falla immediately took control. Fabjan tried to challenge her in the final stretch, but Falla proved to be stronger. Her winning time in the final was the fastest of the day.
The prologue began at 8:30 a.m. and temperatures around -4 Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit). The highest-ranked athletes started first and the final standings already began to develop as the prologue came to an end. Falla, Eide and Fabjan clinched the first three qualifying places, just as they did in the final.
“I’m satisfied with the result and I’m happy to be in a sprint race again,” Falla told NRK after the race.
Of the 30 qualifiers, Norway’s 22-year-old Renate Bergset Tjetland was right on the edge in 30th (+18.26). Annika Taylor, who is originally from California but competes for Great Britain (while training with Norway’s Lillehammer Skiklub/Team Coop Talent), qualified in 27th, (+17.14). She started in the second heat and placed fifth, 12.1 seconds behind Weng, who won that quarterfinal.
“I’m happy about qualifying for the quarterfinal,” Taylor told FasterSkier afterward. “I feel like I got off to a good start and I tried to find the right lines, but I wasn’t able to follow in the final climb.”
The five quarterfinals starting at five minute intervals were won by Falla, Weng, Slovenia’s Katja Visnar, Eide and Fabjan, respectively. Slovenia’s Alenka Čebašek crossed the finish in second after Visnar, but was disqualified for an illegal lane change that impeded Norway’s Lotta Udnes Weng. Čebašek was relegated to last in the heat and 30th overall, while Lotta Weng advanced to the semifinals in second (where she went on to place fifth for 10th overall). Falla started out faster than everyone in her quarterfinal, but slowed down considerably in the final stretch, opening the door for teammate Astrid Uhrenhold Jacobsen to win the heat in 2:45.4, while Falla finished with the same time in second.
Falla seemed just as relaxed in her semifinal, which she won by 0.9 seconds over Heidi Weng.
“I thought it was a lot of fun and I’m really happy because I’ve never been in the final in Beito before,” Weng told journalists immediately after advancing to the final in second. “But I’m going to have to start better and work on keeping my speed up all the way when we get to the World Cup.”
Eide won the second semifinal by 0.2 seconds over Fabjan, while Lampic and Slind qualified for the final as lucky losers from the second semifinal in third (+0.6) and fourth (+1.0), respectively.
Canada’s Madison Fraser and Isabella Howden, both of Team Hardwood, placed 43rd (+29.12) and 45th (+43.07), respectively, in the qualifier.
Results: Women’s qualifier | Women’s heats
![Marit Bjørgen racing to first in the women's 10 k freestyle FIS race on Saturday in Beitostølen, Norway. It was her first FIS race since March of 2015. (Photo: Aleks Tangen)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/DSC_0140-1.jpg")
BEITOSTØLEN, Norway — Saturday’s 10-kilometer freestyle individual start was, from the start, all about Marit Bjørgen. Her previous race was 603 days earlier on March 27, 2015 in Harstad, Norway, but that didn’t seem to affect Norway’s six-time Olympic gold medalist one bit.
“I’ll admit that I have had my doubts,” she told Dagbladet about returning to competition. “And I’ve been tired, but I made it through it and I’ve appreciated the good times.”
![Norway's Marit Bjørgen with her baby, Marius, and fans in Beitostølen, Norway, following Bjørgen's first race since having a child in December 2015. Saturday marked Bjørgen's first race back since March 2015. (Photo: Aleks Tangen)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/DSC_0191-1.jpg")
The 36-year-old Bjørgen led Saturday’s International Ski Federation (FIS) race at every split mark and crossed the finish line in 24:40.3 minutes.
Fellow Norwegian national-team member Heidi Weng followed in second, 11.7 seconds behind. After placing second to teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg in Friday’s 10 k classic, Weng told VG that Bjørgen, who sat out the race with a cold, was “probably sitting at home and laughing at how slow it went went. She will race fast and I think will see Marit Bjørgen as good as she has been in the past. She’s done great during the summer and fall training.”
After her second-straight second-place finish, Weng told Dagbladet that she opened fast on Saturday, but her muscles tired as the race progressed.
“It’s irritating, but I really had no chance toward the end, and it’s not that bad, really, because I don’t think I’ve ever had a better season opener. I’m a little surprised by that really,” she said.
When asked by FasterSkier if she thought she could match her performances in Sunday’s skate sprint, Weng said, “I didn’t make it through from the prologue last year so I’m hoping that I can do better than that, but we’ll see.”
The race for third place proved to be the most exciting with Østberg crossing the finish line 28.2 seconds behind Bjørgen and just 1.7 seconds in front of Norway’s Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, who finished fourth. Norway swept the top eight as Kari Øyre Slind followed 2.9 seconds later in fifth and her sister Silje Øyre Slind was sixth, another 17.5 seconds behind.
Østberg told FasterSkier that she will not be competing in Sunday’s sprint. “If the World Cup weekend had been two weeks away then maybe, but after doing two tough races in two days and since sprints takes a lot of energy rest is probably the best,” she said.
Nonetheless, a first and third place finish in Beitostølen is Østberg’s best start to a season yet.
“It is without a doubt my best season opener, and I’m super happy,” she told both FasterSkier and Oppland Arbeiderblad, a regional newspaper from her hometown of Gjøvik.
![Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen (Norway) racing to fourth in the women's 10 k freestyle FIS race on Saturday in Beitostølen, Norway. (Photo: Aleks Tangen)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/DSC_0135-1.jpg")
Jacobsen narrowly missed the podium after crossing the finish line 1.7 seconds slower than Østberg.
“I feel like I’m not quite there yet,” Jacobsen told FasterSkier after. “I still have some work to do in order to be in top shape, but I still ski relatively fast and I feel like I have a very good base condition so I think it can be a good year.”
Asked what it was like to have Bjørgen back, Jacobsen replied, “She wins as expected. I skied with her on my second lap and I definitely think she can ski faster. This race wasn’t Marit in her top shape.”
When asked about Bjørgen’s ability to perform as well as she did on Saturday, considering she hasn’t raced since 2015, Jacobsen smiled and waited a moment before she answered, “That’s something only Marit can do.”
Eighteen-year-old Norwegian Mathilde Myhrvold finished 27th (+3:49.7) of 48 finishers on Saturday. In 2014, she competed in the track and field World Junior Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and last season she won the Norwegian Cup. Saturday stood as her first race this season.
“Slightly after finishing the first lap I started feeling a little tired and then I skied a little slower, but I improved toward the finish and I’m happy about that,” Myhrvold said. “I may have started a little too fast and maybe that’s why I was tired.”
She figured a few races would help her return to top shape, and for the rest of the season, she’s focused on improving her conditioning for FIS Junior World Championships trials.
One spot ahead of her on the results sheet, American Cambria McDermott, who is living and training in Norway, finished 26th (+3:33.6). Canada’s Isabella Howden and Madison Fraser, both of Team Hardwood, placed 45th (+6:19.6) and 47th (+6:59), respectively.
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Another ‘W’ for Tønseth
Norway’s Didrik Tønseth repeated his podium-topping performance from Friday’s 15 k classic and won Saturday’s 15 k freestyle in 33:20.9. But the biggest surprise of the men’s race was second-place finisher Simen Hegstad Krüger, who crossed the finish line in a time that was only six seconds slower than Tønseth.
![Norway's Didrik Tønseth racing to his second-straight win of the weekend in the 15 k freestyle FIS race on Saturday in Beitostølen, Norway. (All photos: Aleks Tangen)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/DSC_0189.jpg")
“I had nothing more to give, but this podium finish is incredibly satisfying,” the 23-year-old Krüger, who won the 15 k freestyle at U23 World Championships last season, told NRK after Saturday’s race.
“I’m hoping for a spot on the team for the World Cup in Lillehammer, but it might be too late for that,”
Norwegian men’s coach Tor-Arne Hetland seemed open to placing Krüger on the team for Lillehammer in two weeks.
“We’ll be choosing the team on Monday and I think the mini tour will suit him well, so he may receive a positive message in the coming week,” he told NRK.
Tønseth had the advantage of starting five bibs after Krüger and told NRK that he felt like he was in good shape and that he was ready to start the season. The 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland, are his main focus.
Norway swept the top five after a close fight for third, which Simen Andreas Sveen took, 32.6 seconds behind Tønseth. Anders Nøstedahl Gløersen was another 1.9 seconds back in fourth (+34.5), Mathias Rundgreen placed fifth (+36.9) and Andrew Musgrave of Great Britain finished sixth (+37.0).
![Norway's 25-year-old Mathias Rundgreen (130) leads Chris Jespersen (107), a 33-year-old Norwegian World Cup regular, in the men's 15 k freestyle FIS race in Beitostølen, Norway. (Photo: Aleks Tangen)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/DSC_0155.jpg")
“I feel good about the race, but I felt a little limply in the beginning,” Musgrave told FasterSkier after. “Though I was able to close some of the gap toward the end, but not enough.”
Like most World Cup skiers, Musgrave’s goal for the season is World Championship and he’ll be in both Kuusamo, Finland, and Lillehammer over the next two weekends to compete in the World Cup.
One place behind Musgrave was Norwegian Sjur Røthe in seventh (+37.2), who told FasterSkier that he felt “heavy during the start.” In a post-race interview with NRK, Røthe said he’s focused on the World Championships 50 k. He planned to skip Sunday’s sprint to recharge for the World Cup.
![Petter Northug (Norway) approaching the finish of Saturday's 15 k freestyle FIS race in Beitostølen, Norway. (Photo: Aleks Tangen)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/DSC_0193.jpg")
Petter Northug finished Friday’s race like it was a workout, and during the start of Saturday’s race, it appeared that he was on the path to a podium, but such was not the case. Northug led the race at the 1.2 and 2.1 k marks, but for the rest of the race, he was unable to maintain the same speed as the other top finishers and ended up 15th (+1:02.6). However, Northug didn’t seem to be affected by his fading speed, telling Dagbladet, “I am where I want to be. I’ve had two good workouts now and I’m confident that the job is done. I am excited for the important races that are approaching.”
But he did offer some explanation for what happened.
“I opened too hard and during the second lap I felt like it would be too much to maintain the tempo,” Northug told NRK.
Out of 123 male finishers, Jack Carlyle (NDC Thunder Bay) led several Canadian juniors in 90th (+3:48.4). His NDC teammate Scott James Hill finished 101st (+4:25.6), Joey Foster (Pierre-Harvey Training Centre) was 103rd (+4:31), and Team Hardwood skiers Ryan Jackson was 106th (+4:50.4) and Kieran Jones was 115th (+6:11.5).
![Jack Carlyle (NDC Thunder Bay) racing to 90th to lead the Canadian men in the 15 k freestyle FIS race in Nov. 19 in Beitostølen, Norway. (Photo: Aleks Tangen)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/DSC_0123.jpg")
