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Tag: World Championships Lahti 2017

  • Cockney Leads ‘North of the Border’ U.S. Nats Prologue Podium

    Cockney Leads ‘North of the Border’ U.S. Nats Prologue Podium

    Left to right: Julien Locke of the Alberta World Cup Academy along with Jess Cockney of Canada's World Cup B-team and Knute Kohnsgaard also of the Alberta World Cup Academy standing on the podium for freestyle sprint prologue on Thursday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
    The men’s podium at Thursday’s freestyle sprint prologue at 2017 U.S. Cross Country Championships at Soldier Hollow, with (from left to right) Julien Locke (AWCA/NST U25 Team), Jess Cockney (Canadian World Cup B-team), and Knute Johnsgaard (AWCA/NST U25 Team).

    MIDWAY, Utah. — Most were swallowed in seconds, the steady stream of snowflakes on Thursday serving a magician-like purpose: a curtain of snow through which the first five starters all appeared, only to disappear once again. All except one.

    A speck of red bobbing through the Soldier Hollow’s (SoHo) new sprint course, sporting bib 5 and the Canadian national team suit, Jess Cockney did not go unseen.

    The 27-year-old member of Canada’s World Cup B-team lost nothing to the freshly falling snow, posting the fastest course time as the fifth finisher through.

    Jess Cockney of the Canadian World Cup B-team racing the men's 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint prologue on Thursday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
    Jess Cockney of the Canadian World Cup B-team racing to the win in the men’s 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint prologue on Thursday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.

    However, with more than 65 racers still looking to push past the start wand onto the 1.5-kilometer freestyle-sprint prologue loop at 2017 U.S. Cross Country Championships, Cockney had a wait before he had a win.

    Starting seven bibs behind Cockney and 1 minute and 30 seconds after him, Julien Locke, of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) and Canadian U25 Team, headed out of the gate in bib 12.

    The 23 year old was racing for the podium. After his classic sprint last Sunday ended in “disappointment”, Locke was ready for redemption.

    “The plan for this week was to land on the podium,” Locke said during a post-race interview.

    Locke hammered through the first undulating uphill leading out of the stadium, challenging the previous course leader’s pace. Looping through the first descent heading into the second major climb, he didn’t appear to be losing or gaining ground on Cockney.

    However, rounding into the final finishing stretch, Locke was at a deficit. He finished 2.69 seconds behind Cockney’s prologue time, the closest any competitor would get for the remainder of the day.

    Cockney’s prologue time of 3:15.20 minutes not only kept him in first place, but secured his spot at the upcoming World Championships in Lahti, Finland, starting late next month. With much at stake for many skiers heading to the start line of Thursday’s race — for Cockney, a chance at qualifying for his second World Championships — the Canadian sprinter indicated that staying confident gave him a leg up on his competitors. 

    Julien Locke of the Alberta World Cup Academy racing the men's 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint prologue on Thursday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
    Julien Locke (AWCA/Canadian U25 Team) racing to second in the men’s 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint prologue on Thursday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.

    “Being on the start line is exactly the same as sitting down for a test,” Cockney said after. “You don’t really have to stress about it if you did all the preparation and you studied for it. Ski training is very similar to that.”

    Cockney was joined on the U.S. nationals prologue podium (no sprint heats followed) by two fellow Canadians, Locke in second place and, (down to Locke by three-hundredths of a second) Knute Johnsgaard in third overall (+2.72).

    Since Johnsgaard (also a member of the AWCA and Canadian U25 Team) was not pre-qualified for World Championships coming into this week’s competitions, Thursday’s prologue was his last shot at proving his deserved a team spot.

    “I was fighting hard for the last couple spots [on the World Championships team],” Johnsgaard said Thursday. “I still don’t know [whether or not I’ve been selected].”

    Regardless of whether Johnsgaard gets to sport the red maple leaf in Finland in late February/early March, he viewed the four days of racing at SoHo as valuable.

    “It was a really great weekend to be able to have a bit deeper field than our usual domestic races in Canada,” Johnsgaard said. “Especially for the sprint heats, to be able to be going head to head with the fastest guys in North America and not just the fastest guys north of the border, it’s a really great experience and helps a lot.” 

    Knute Johnsgaard of the Alberta World Cup Academy racing the men's 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint prologue on Thursday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
    Knute Johnsgaard (AWCA/Canadian U25 Team) racing to third in the men’s 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint prologue on Thursday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.

    While Americans dominated the NorAm opening weekend at Sovereign Lake, B.C., in December, Canada stuck it to its southern rivals on Thursday. If nothing else, it was confidence boosting with more than 600 racers coming out for the week’s races (although on Thursday, 71 started the senior men’s race).

    “The field can be as deep as it is here, and you can still be confident that all the work you did to get to that start line is going to hopefully be better than anyone else’s,” Cockney said.

    Though no American podium ceremony was held, the top Americans for the day were Logan Hanneman of Alaska Pacific University (APU) in fourth overall (+3.37), Cole Morgan of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) Gold Team in sixth (+5.03) and his SVSEF teammate, John Hegman in seventh (+5.71). Both SVSEF Gold Team members also finished on Sunday’s American classic sprint podium.

    — Jason Albert and Gerry Furseth contributed

    Results 

    (Above video by Kirk Nichols of The Utah Nordic Alliance)

  • Up and Over, Gregg Gets Going At U.S. Nationals with 10 k Skate Win

    Left to right: Chelsea Holmes of Alaska Pacific University, Caitlin Gregg of Team Gregg and Caitlin Patterson of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project standing on the podium for the women's 10-kilometer freestyle event on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
    The women’s 10 k freestyle podium on the first day of 2017 U.S. Cross Country Championships at Soldier Hollow, with (from left to right) Chelsea Holmes (APU) in second, race winner Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg) and Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) in third on Saturday in Midway, Utah.

    MIDWAY, Utah — With four grueling uphills per lap, the new U.S. Cross Country Championships women’s 10-kilometer course at Soldier Hollow (SoHo) totals some 400 meters of solid incline. Divide those 400 meters by eight and what do you get? The hill metric Caitlin Gregg, based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn., has used as a race-season springboard for the past nine years.

    Maybe flats are easier to find on Gregg’s Twin City turf than the hills that abound in SoHo. But the 36 year old still considers herself a climber.

    Gregg proved a point after she won by 2.2 seconds in the women’s 10 k freestyle on Saturday, the first day of nationals: put a hill, any hill, in front of her and she’s going to climb it — whatever form that hill happens to take.

    Caitlin Gregg of Team Gregg on her way to a first place finish in the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle event on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
    Caitlin Gregg of Team Gregg on her way to a first place finish in the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle event on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.

    In 2014, Gregg missed making the U.S. Olympic team, after competing in Vancouver in 2010.

    In 2015, she won a World Championships bronze medal. Then she got a U.S. Ski Team (USST) nomination for the 2016 season, only to return to the U.S. from the World Cup a few weeks early.

    Now representing Team Gregg with her husband Brian, she has her sights set on 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Gregg’s chances for world champs, however, depend greatly on her performances this week at U.S. nationals.

    So far, with her first place finish in 27:00.6 — Gregg’s eighth national title, according to the International Ski Federation (FIS) records — she’s off to a good start.

    “My competition has been really strong this year and that is something that I don’t think is a negative at all,” Gregg told FasterSkier on Saturday. “The goal of this entire country is to really step it up and be more competitive on the international field.”

    “I want it to be the top athlete, whoever it is [who goes to World Championships],” Gregg said. “Whether it is me or not, I just want [today’s 10 k] to be an opportunity for domestic athletes to get there.”

    The other domestic athletes Gregg referred in particular were her Saturday podium counterparts, Chelsea Holmes of Alaska Pacific University (APU), who finished second (+2.2), and Caitlin Patterson of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) in third (+9.1).

    Holmes earned World Cup starts last season and competed in the Ski Tour Canada, where she scored her first World Cup points. She explained she is taking the U.S. nationals day by day.

    “For me, I just try focusing on every day doing my best,” Holmes said. “I’m not a number person. I just try to do as best as I can and I kind of see where it gets me.”

    Caitlin Patterson of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project leading her teammate Kaitlynn Miller during the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle event on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
    Caitlin Patterson leading her Craftsbury Green Racing Project teammate Kaitlynn Miller during the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.

    Patterson, on the other hand, recently returned to the U.S. after racing on the World Cup for Period 1. She also scored World Cup points in November, and entered nationals confident she was a podium contender.

    “I had some pretty solid races [in Period 1] – some ups and downs there, too – and I was certainly hoping to come back and be able to have a strong showing here today,” Patterson said on Saturday. “Today was actually a little bit of a tough day for me, I didn’t quite feel as snappy as I was hoping, but I ended up OK.”

    Both Patterson and Holmes started in front of Gregg, who indicated she received no specific splits. But she did hear her positions being called out. At various points they ranged from second to fifth and sixth.

    “I didn’t really have a rabbit,” Gregg said. “So I tried to catch as many people as I could. I knew it really wasn’t really the longevity that was the issue it was just the right moment to attack. So I made a plan to attack at about 6 k and attack hard.”

    Around 6 k, Gregg did as she planned and put down the hammer, especially on the uphills. Despite being “in the hurt train” during her last 4 k of racing, she finished with just over two seconds to spare on second place.

    “It was more about racing against myself,” Gregg explained. “Be patient and then go.”

    Katharine Ogden of the U.S. Ski Team and Stratton Mountain School was fourth (+20.0) and the first under-23 finisher. Becca Rorabaugh and Rosie Frankowski finished fifth (+58.4)  and sixth (+1:05.0), respectfully, to give APU three of the top six.

    “I felt like I was able to move pretty well, most of it, but you really had to keep the pressure on the whole time,” Rorabaugh said. “Your body didn’t want to do it today, but you had to kind of just go there anyway.”

    Originally from Fairbanks, Alaska, Rorabaugh said the cold weather on Saturday morning — which delayed the women’s start by an hour — suited her.

    “I mean, I’m from Fairbanks. I can’t help it, I like it a little bit,” she said. “I wouldn’t consider myself as much of a skate skier, so this is my best skate result at nationals in a distance race so I’m excited about that. But I think the cold, definitely I have a comfort in the cold.”

    Results