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Tag: World Juniors

  • More Medals? A World Youth and Junior Biathlon Championships Preview

    More Medals? A World Youth and Junior Biathlon Championships Preview

    When the World Youth and Junior Biathlon Championships kick off in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic on Saturday, both the U.S. and Canadian teams will have high hopes.

    How high?

    Grace Boutot (USA) racing in Nove Mesto this weekend. All photos courtesy of Judy Geer.

    In 2010 in Torsby, Sweden, Canadian Rose-Marie Cote won a bronze medal in the youth 10 k individual. In 2009 in Canmore, Canada, American Grace Boutot won silver in the same event, and Canadian Yolaine Oddou was one spot behind her. That was a banner year for the home team: Audrey Vaillancourt won bronze in the youth 6 k sprint, and the youth men took silver in the relay. That’s to say nothing of the multiple top-10 finishes by these and other athletes in the last two years.

    The good news is that all of the medal-winning athletes are returning this year except for Canada’s Kurtis Wenzel, who is focusing on skiing with the Alberta Ski Team.

    And they’d better not rest on their laurels, because their own teammates are gunning for the podium as well. For instance, Boutot finished second at the U.S. trials, behind Corrine Malcolm, a freshly converted skier who is in her first year of training as a biathlete.

    To understand the event, if you’re a ski fan, think of the youth division as more like World Juniors for skiing (athletes are born in 1992 or later) and the junior division more like Under-23 Championships (athletes are born in 1990 or 1991). The junior division is incredibly competitive and often includes a significant number of World Cup athletes.

    For instance, Leif Nordgren, the top American junior last year, recently contributed a stellar relay leg to the 9th-place relay at the Antholz World Cup. And in Canmore just two years ago, podium finishers included Miriam Gossner and Simon Schempp of Germany and Benjamin Weger of Switzerland – all of whom have stood on the World Cup podium – as well as current overall World Cup leader Tarjei Boe of Norway.

    This year, it may be slightly less competitive because the World Cup circuit has moved across the pond to Aroostook County, Maine. As a result, it will be hard for top juniors to split their time between the World Cup and World Juniors.

    The Americans

    Juniors

    Goessling.

    Boutot (Maine Winter Sports Center/Fort Kent ME) is the most successful of the American biathletes, but she’s joined by Ethan Dreissigacker (Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club/Morrisville VT) and Raleigh Goessling (Maine Winter Sports Center/Esko MN) in having the most experience: the trio has been teammates since the 2008 Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany.

    “I’ve been on teams with Ethan for a couple of years, and I think that both of us have the potential for some very respectable results,” Goessling told FasterSkier after the trials races in Jericho, Vermont in December.

    As noted, Boutot has some competition in Malcolm (Maine Winter Sports Center/Hayward WI). Last year, Malcolm qualified for NCAA Championships racing for Montana State University, and she was on the podium in the sprint at junior nationals for the past two years. At the end of last winter she jumped in a biathlon race and never looked back.

    This weekend, the athletes had a chance to race on the Nove Mesto trails in a series of warm-up races with a few of the other junior national teams. Malcolm and Boutot each raced once: Malcolm finished seventh in Saturday’s sprint race and Boutot eighth in Sunday’s relay-format sprint.

    For Malcolm, the experience was quite valuable.

    Malcolm.

    “As far as my first international race goes, I kind of gave myself a pep talk at the starting gate that went something like this, ‘Corrine Malcolm settle the f&*! down…” and then the lady started to count me down in German,” she said in an e-mail.

    “The last few days going into a big race kind of reminds me of studying for college exams. I always felt like if I didn’t know it the night before I wasn’t going to get any smarter in the next eight hours anyway, so I’m trying to stay relaxed. The work is done. We put in the hours all summer and fall and knowing that I worked really hard is all I have to rely on. I’m excited and it’s only going to amp up as we get closer to the weekend. I really have no idea what to expect… I just expect myself to ski hard and shoot just like I’ve practiced. That’s all I can really ask for.”

    Boutot didn’t need the experience as much, as she had raced in Nove Mesto before.

    “I knew what to expect this year coming into World Juniors since I was able to race in Nove Mesto in the IBU Cup last year,” Boutot told FasterSkier. “I had a top 30 finish in the IBU Cup, and that has encouraged and motivated me for this upcoming weekend.

    Dreissigacker.

    “I wasn’t able to train very well [this year],” she continued. “Because of that my expectations are not quite as high as I had previously set, but I know that I am still capable of having some good finishes. My goal now is to get a few top 20 results and qualify for Under-26 Championships in Italy in February. I’m excited, I’m going into these races to have fun and with no pressure on my shoulders.“

    In the junior men’s division, Dreissigacker and Goessling are joined by Ben Greenwald (Maine Winter Sports Center/Saint Paul MN). The three have been very competitive with each other so far: Greenwald and Dreissigacker both won races at junior trials, but Goessling was never far behind.

    This weekend it was the same as ever. Greenwald and Dreissigacker finished 15th and 16th in the men’s sprint race, separated by only 0.3 seconds, and Goessling was 23 seconds back in 18th. In the relay format, they opted to race as juniors, and improved their placings. Dreissigacker led the way in eighth, followed by Greenwald and Goessling in 11th and 12th.

    Youth women

    Silke Hynes (Vermont Collegiate Biathlon/Burlington VT) and Kelly Kjorlein (Mount Itasca/Grand Rapids MN) are returning for a second year representing the U.S. as youths. In Torsby last year, Kjorlein moved up from 58th place in the sprint to finish 40th in the pursuit. And in Sunday’s relay-format race, Kjorlein led the group with a tenth-place finish.

    Kjorlein.

    “I’m feeling pretty confident going into the races,” Kjorlein said in an e-mail. “Unfortunately I just came down with a pretty nasty cough but hopefully it will clear up by Saturday. But it was really nice to have the chance to get used to the trails and venue before the important races. I’ve been lucky enough to have plenty of time to get adjusted to the new surroundings. The trails here are fantastic, the crew out at the venue has been doing a wonderful job laying down snow and keeping things groomed nicely.”

    Hynes has experience, but she is more of a shooter than a skier. Her best chance of a good result will be in the individual race, where each missed shot comes with a one-minute penalty.

    Hynes and Kjorlein are joined by a pair of newcomers. Carly Wynn (Saratoga Biathlon/Queensbury NY) was the top qualifier at junior trials, and undoubtedly the fastest skier on the squad. Just before leaving for Europe, she finished 13th in the Lake Placid SuperTour 10 k skate – the top result by a high school skier. Wynn has good shooting days and bad shooting days, so she’s something of an unknown quantity.

    But her unpredictability is nothing compared to the other newcomer, Tara Garaghty-Moates, a former medalist at the junior national sprint. Shooting isn’t Garaghty-Moates’ strong point – in the races this weekend she shot 30% and 25% – but if she has a good day on the range, she could have a very good day indeed. As it is, she beat Kjorlein by 35 seconds in the sprint on Saturday, so despite a few trips to the penalty loop she’s capable of leading the team.

    “Even though our youth team is a little less experienced, I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of results we can post,” Kjorlein said. “Carly and Tara are both very experienced in the nordic world, so they’ve been doing a great job transitioning over to biathlon.”

    Smith.

    Youth men

    The youth men’s squad features only one returning member – Casey Smith (Methow Valley/Winthrop WA), who finished 32nd in the sprint last year in Torsby. There, he was the junior member of the team behind Dreissigacker and Goessling. But now, he is undeniably the leader of a young, inexperienced squad. In the races this weekend, he finished fourth and fifth.

    “I felt that my races this weekend went well,” Smith told FasterSkier. “They were for sure not perfect, but that is okay because there is still a few more days before the world junior races start. Those races were very beneficial to help prepare for World Juniors.

    “I feel prepared for the upcoming races,” he concluded. “I am adjusting pretty well, I have finally adjusted to the time difference, and the food is good so I don’t have to worry about that. The trails are nice.”

    But Smith’s experience is the only reason he is the squad’s leader. He was actually the fourth qualifier at junior trials, which were won by a pair of young biathletes with similar names: Sam Dougherty (Alaska Biathlon/Anchorage AK) and Sean Doherty (Saratoga Biathlon/Conway NH). And Doherty bested Smith in Sunday’s relay-format sprint, finishing fourth.

    Doherty.

    They are joined by Dougherty’s teammate Ray Wonders (Alaska Biathlon/Anchorage AK).

    “I think that the youth men’s team will be able to hold their own as long as the shooting stays good,” Smith said.

    The Canadians

    With five returning medalists, it’s hard to pick out just a few Canadian athletes to focus on.

    One athlete, however, has already had some experience racing in Europe this year. Scott Gow, who has competed in four Junior/Youth World Championships already and has three individual top-10 finishes and one relay medal, was part of Canada’s IBU Cup squad in December. His top finish was 15th place in the individual in Martell, Italy.

    “I am confident going into Worlds after racing the IBU Cup earlier this season,” Gow told FasterSkier. “I had good results before Christmas and I know that if I can put out a good race I will be able to place within the top twenty and hopefully within the top ten. I am still very focused on making sure my skiing is in good form and that my shooting is still on target.”

    In the junior men’s division he is joined by David Gregoire, Aaron Gillmor, and Vincent Blais. Gillmor has the next most international experience: it’s his third trip to the Championships, and he joined Gow on the silver-medal relay team in Canmore. Gregoire competed in Torsby last year with a top finish of 30th in the individual.

    The youth men’s squad also has a Gow on it – Scott’s brother Christian.

    “Christian and I started biathlon at the same time around ten years ago at a summer camp at Canada Olympic Park,” Scott Gow said. “We both did a biathlon demo and loved it, so we signed up for the biathlon bears program and soon after joined Rocky Mountain Racers. Christian and Stuart [Harden] will be good ones to watch in the Youth Men category.”

    Christian Gow finished 16th in the sprint in Torsby last year. He is joined by Harden, Macx Davies, and Albert Bouchard.

    The youth women’s squad is led by Cote and Julia Ransom, who finished 11th in the individual in Torsby and was part of the fourth-place relay team. They are joined by Danielle Vrielink and Sarah Beaudry.

    And finally, the junior women are led by former medalists Oddou and Vaillancourt, and rounded out by Emma Lunder, who competed in Torsby last year with a top finish of 30th in the individual.

    “Look out for the Quebec girls: Yolaine, Rose Marie, and Audrey,” Gow advised.

  • Diggins Takes Seventh at World Juniors, Behind Norwegian Sweep

    Diggins Takes Seventh at World Juniors, Behind Norwegian Sweep

    The U.S.'s Jessie Diggins on her way to seventh in the 2011 Junior World Championships 5 k freestyle.

    Last winter, Jessie Diggins was just another up-and-coming American cross-country skier.

    At U.S. Nationals, she raced to a solid-but-unspectacular ninth place in the classic sprint, and at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Germany, her top finish was a 25th place, in the 10 k pursuit.

    What a difference a year makes.

    After collecting her first national title earlier this month, and only a couple of days removed from illness, Diggins placed seventh in the World Junior Championships 5 k freestyle in Otepaa, Estonia on Wednesday, confirming that she has completed a transformation into one of the best young skiers on the planet.

    Diggins climbing.

    Her development over the past season has been impressive even by Diggins’ own high standards—if someone had told her a year ago that she’d be this close to the top at World Juniors, “I would have looked around for the camera, to see if I was being punked,” she said.

    After two circuits of an undulating 2.5 k course, Diggins finished some 28 seconds down on winner Ragnhild Haga, who led a Norwegian sweep of the top four places. Kari Oeyre Slind was second, five-and-a-half seconds behind, with pre-race favorite Heidi Weng in third.

    Though impressive, Norway’s results were on par with last year, when their women, led by Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg, swept the podium in the 10 k pursuit.

    “They had the triple last year as well, and I knew we had a strong team,” Haga said. “I didn’t expect it, but I’m not so surprised.”

    Norway’s results may not have been unprecedented, but Diggins’ finish was the first top-10 for the American juniors since Liz Stephen was seventh in 2007 in Tarvisio, Italy.

    After her national title earlier this month, there were certainly some expectations on Diggins coming into the races in Estonia. But she caught a cold in her first few days in Europe, and had an uphill battle just to get to the start line on Wednesday.

    “I ended up taking four days off, and yesterday I skied for the first time,” she said. “I was feeling super-nervous, because I’d just been laying in bed the last few days, twiddling my thumbs.”

    But from the start, she didn’t seem to be missing much juice—after her first lap, Diggins was sitting sixth, less than a second out of the top five.

    The women’s 2.5 k course suited her, she said, with some steep climbs, as well as plenty of gradual terrain, and conditions that might have confounded some of her competitors, according to Matt Whitcomb, the leader of the U.S. team.

    “The snow was a little bit slower than it has been,” he said. “Those areas that were recovery on the faster days were work today, and I think that suits the fitter athletes—among which Jessie is.”

    Over the past year, Diggins has put a lot of work into her technique, and made some big strides. She still isn’t the prettiest skier—her energetic movements sometimes bubble into the occasional awkward angle and stray body part—but Whitcomb said that she’s improved to the point where “technique is not limiting her out there.”

    When she crossed the finish line, Diggins was sitting in third, and had to suffer a few uncomfortable minutes of being pushed downward by later starters.

    “Seeing myself slowly get knocked off the podium was kind of disappointing, but still, a top 10 is huge for me,” she said.

    The illness, she added, didn’t end up being too much of a factor; in fact, she speculated, it might have helped.

    “Maybe…it ended up being good, because I think I have a tendency to not back off like I should before a race,” she said. “When I

    The women's podium, with Heidi Weng (R) looking glum.

    finally did get to be on snow, I was like, ‘yes!’”

    Diggins may have made a big jump in the last year, but she wasn’t the only woman in the junior field to do so. Haga, the winner, had a top finish of ninth at last year’s championships in Germany, and said that she “absolutely did not expect to be on the podium.”

    After her first lap, she sat in third place, four seconds behind her teammate Weng and one behind Slind.

    Weng was the heavy favorite in the race, having won one last winter’s races in Germay—as team doctor Kjell-Vegard Mikland put it, she was “the big star” among the Norwegian women.

    But Weng, Mykland said, had pushed a little too hard in her training during the summer. Blood tests revealed high levels of stress hormones, and she had to back off over the past three or four months.

    She couldn’t quite sustain her strong first lap, and while a bronze medal is nothing to scoff at, Weng seemed crushed—she couldn’t muster a shred of a smile for the podium ceremony.

    Haga can't believe it.

    Haga, meanwhile, said that her plan had been to save some power for her second loop, intending to make up time on the flats and descents from the top of the climb at the far point of the course. It worked, as she reversed her deficit, ultimately finishing six seconds up on Slind and eight up on Weng.

    She crossed the line as the leader, but had to endure a wait of exactly three-and-a-half minutes—the gap between her start time and Weng’s—before the victory was confirmed by the video board, setting off a jubilant shouting fit.

    “Last year, my best result was ninth, and I just wanted to improve that. A medal was more than enough for me today, and when they said I was the world champion, it was surreal,” she said.

    Along with Slind and Weng, Haga is a member of the Norwegian junior team, which is coached by Roar Hjelmeset—Odd-Bjoern’s brother—and meets once a month for training camps. Slind and Haga are roommates at a school in Lillehammer, and they train a lot together—“but not too much,” Slind said.

    Other North American results included Canadian Janelle Greer in 35th—a result that the country’s team leader, Eric de Nys, called “a pretty good day.”

    “It’s just small fish coming into a big pool,” he said.

    American Joanne Reid was 36th, Heidi Widmer (CAN) 45th, Heather Mehain (CAN) 47th, Annika Hicks (CAN) 56th, Kinsey Loan (USA) 68th, and Isabel Caldwell (USA) 70th.

    Link to full results.

  • Otepaa WJ/U-23’s: 10 Juniors to Watch

    Otepaa WJ/U-23’s: 10 Juniors to Watch

    Romanian skier Paul Constantin Pepene, after winning last year's U-23 championship in the 30 k pursuit.

    One of the best things about the World Junior and U-23 Championships is the potential for surprises.

    Sure, sometimes there are upsets on the World Cup, like last weekend’s victories by Eldar Roenning and Eirik Brandsdal in Otepaa, Estonia. But even if those wins were unexpected, they still came from familiar names—both Roenning and Brandsdal are regulars on the circuit.

    At World Juniors and U-23’s, which kick off Wednesday, there are likely to be title-winning performances from names you’ve never heard of before, and from countries you’ve visited. Last year’s championships, for example, saw Paul Constantin Pepene come out of nowhere to take the 30 k pursuit, overcoming horrendous technique and a virtually non-existent ski culture in his native Romania.

    We don’t want to completely demystify it, but with racing set to start in less than an hour, here’s a list of 10 juniors to keep an eye on in Otepaa. We’ll follow it up later today with 10 U-23 skiers, as well.

    The German Women

    Okay, so, technically, this isn’t one junior to watch. But otherwise, these women would take up 30 percent of our feature, and that doesn’t seem quite fair.

    Anyway, in Hanna Kolb, Helene Jacob, and Lucia Anger, the Germans essentially have an entire team of juniors with World Cup experience.

    Their qualifications are impressive. Anger has three medals from World Juniors dating back to 2008, and her first race of this year’s championships, Wednesday’s 5 k freestyle, falls on her 20th birthday. Jacob just came off competing in the first two stages of the 2011 Tour de Ski. (Yeah, we know she only beat a combined total of two women, but cut her some slck—she’s 18!) Kolb has cracked no fewer than eight sets of sprint heats at the World Cup level, finishing as high as eleventh, and she’s still finishing up high school: According to Stefan Totzler, the German U-23 women’s coach, Kolb is studying up to take finals for her last class, immediately following the conclusion of the World Ski Championships in March.

    Heidi Weng

    The Norwegian female juniors are almost as strong as the Germans, but Weng especially stands out. She is the last seed in Wednesday’s 5 k—the spot reserved for the highest ranked athlete, as judged by points accumulated in previous races—and Geir Enore Rogn, one of the Norwegian team’s six waxers, picked her as the best bet for a good result.

    Weng was second in the 2010 World Juniors pursuit, and she also won last weekend’s test sprint on the World Championships course in Oslo over World Cup veterans like Maiken Caspersen Falla and Kari Vikhagen Gjeitnes. She’s also fleet of foot, having won an award for being the fastest junior runner in Norway in 2010.

    Marjaana Pitkaenen

    Finnish U-23 Head Coach Ilkka Jarva tipped Pitkaenen as the team’s strongest female junior. She’s the second-ranked starter in Wednesday’s 5 k freestyle, and a 2009 European Youth Olympic Festival champion in the 5 k classic, beating none other than Lucia Anger by ten seconds.

    Michiko Kashiwabara

    Japan's Michiko Kashiwabara racing at last year's World Junior Championships in Germany.

    The Japanese female relay team quietly amassed a couple of strong results in the World Cup this fall—12th in the season-opening event in Gallivare, Sweden, where they beat the U.S. team in a sprint, and fifth in La Clusaz, France, in December.

    The 19-year-old Kashiwabara was a member of both those squas, and turned in strong performances in each race—especially in Gallivare, where her time was two seconds faster than Morgan Arritola’s.

    Kashiwabara was fourth in last year’s World Juniors pursuit, barely missing out on a medal to Norway’s Tuva Toftdahl. After coming painfully close to the podium numerous times in last year’s championships, look for the Japanese team to take a step up this season.

    Gaia Vuerich

    This 19 year old Italian has nine World Cup sprint starts under her belt, including one where she qualified for the heats. She was fourth in last season’s World Juniors sprint in Germany, and even topped Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk in an event at the Russian Sprint Tour in the spring. (To be fair, the event, a steep descent, was not exactly Kowalczyk’s forte.)

    One more reason to like her, if you’re an American ski fan? She was born on the fourth of July.

    Petrica Hogiu

    Romania doesn’t turn out cross-country skiers by the bundle, but it appears to do a pretty good job of picking its battles. In addition to Pepene, they’ve also got Hogiu (don’t ask how to pronounce his name), who at age 18 managed to top Garrott Kuzzy, Kris Freeman, and Simi Hamilton in the 15 k skate at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

    Hogiu was second in last year’s 20 k World Juniors pursuit in Germany. A good race from him in Estonia could pick him up another medal. He’s already won one event this year, a junior race in Italy, and like Pepene, he’s also a patriotic dude.

    Didrik Toenseth

    Toenseth’s biggest claim to fame is probably winning the 2009 edition of Ski Idol, the Norwegian improvement on the popular American TV show. By doing so, he won a training grant of over $3,000, and a bit of notoriety in his home country.

    Anywhere else but Norway, though, Toenseth’s results would be making him famous. He collected two podiums in that European Youth Olympic Festival in 2009, and won one of the races at last year’s Norwegian Junior National Championships. One thing that could hurt him in Estonia, though, is that he prefers classic skiing, and the distance races here, Toenseth’s specialty, favor strong skaters.

    Perttu Hyvarinen

    If you were playing fantasy nordic and needed a Finnish junior male, the obvious pick would be Iivo Niskanen, 19. His older sister is the verifiably nasty Kerttu, who has multiple top-15’s on the World Cup, as well as a U-23 championship from last year’s 10 k classic in Germany. But according to Jarva, the Finnish U-23 coach, the younger Niskanen suffered a “problematic” start to his season, including a bout with mononucleosis, and has finished just two races this year. The better bet is Hyvarinen, who, like his teammate Pitkaenen, won the distance skate race at the 2009 European Youth Olympic Festival. Wednesday’s race is the exact same format, so look for him to excel there.

    Alexis Jeannerod

    Jeannerod, a 19-year-old Frenchman, probably won’t win Wednesday’s 10 k skate, because unlike Anger, his birthday isn’t until Thursday. A former junior national champion in both mountain biking and cross-country, Jeannerod decided to focus his energies on skiing, and the efforts have largely paid off. A bout of overtraining hurt his results last year, according to his blog, but he has posted some impressive early-season finishes this year. Those include two straight podium finishes in competitive European junior races in December in Austria, which featured some of his toughest rivals that he’ll face here in Estonia.

    Jeannerod also has perhaps the strangest sponsor of any World Juniors competitor: Weleda, a brand of massage oils.

    Thomas Wick

    Wick is the headliner of a strong crop of German junior men, which also includes Markus Weeger and Jonas Dobler. He doesn’t have any single big result to hang his hat on—though he did top Jeannerod to win one of the junior races in Austria in December—but he reeled off a long string of top-fives earlier this season. Having attended the 2009 and 2010 World Juniors, and been part of medal-winning German relay teams both times, he knows his way around a championships, too.

  • NENSA Funds Athletes for World Junior, U23, and J1 Competitions

    New Gloucester, ME – The New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) today announced recipients of funding for this year’s US Ski Team J1 trip, World Junior Championships, and World U23 Games.  This new funding was made possible by the recent generosity of NENSA members through its annual fund drive and online fundraising auction as well as the generosity of NENSA’s major sponsors TD Bank, L.L. Bean, and Trapp Family Lodge.

    NENSA’s Competitive Programs Director is pleased to see progress in the organization’s ability to support these important trips, “This is something that we have been wanting to do for a long time so it is fantastic to see it come to fruition! For our juniors and U23 skiers, these trips are a critical piece in their development.  When you add to this the expense they incur not only for these trips, but for the necessary summer and fall training camps, and domestic races, and Junior Nationals the expense can be daunting to a family and local clubs.”

    The World U23 Ski Championship features the world’s best cross country skiers under age 23.  NENSA is pleased to support one of those athletes.  Ida Sargent from the Craftsbury Green Racing Project and Dartmouth College finished 4th at last year’s championships and is hungry to reach the podium in this year’s event.  NENSA is pleased to provide $500 of funding toward her effort.

    The World Junior Ski Championship takes place during the same week at the same venue as the World U23’s.  It features the best skiers aged 19 and under and New England athletes go into the event with a real shot at earning a top finish.  Skyler Davis (Stratton Mountain School) enters the championship with lots of momentum after earning 3rd overall at the recently concluded national championships in Rumford, Maine.  His teammate Heather Mooney also raced strong at nationals and goes into the event as the 2nd ranked American team member.  Isabel Caldwell (Stratton/Dartmouth) grabbed the final spot on the women’s team with her 6th place ranking and expects to be tough in both sprints and distance racing.  Each of these athletes receives $750 in support from NENSA.

    The first opportunity for US Ski Team-supported international racing is the J1 Scandinavian Cup trip.  New England was well-represented on this trip with Cambria McDermott (Stratton) qualifying for the women’s team and Patrick Caldwell (Stratton/Ford Sayre) and Jack Hegman (Mount Mansfield) earning spots on the men’s squad.  NENSA is please to support each of these athletes with $250 of funding.

    NENSA’s long-term goal is to fully fund all New England athletes qualifying for these important steps in the athlete development pipeline.  If you would like to help make this goal a reality, please support NENSA’s sponsors and plan to give generously to NENSA’s Annual Fund in April and the online fundraising auction in November.  It is the support of NENSA’s members in the past year that made this first step a reality and with continued support, we can do more.

    2011 World U23 Ski Championship Schedule Otepaa, Estonia

Thurs., Jan. 27 Men’s and women’s 15/10k free
Sat., Jan. 29 Men’s and women’s 1.4/1.2k classic sprint
Mon., Jan. 31 Men’s and women’s 30/15k pursuit

    2011 World Junior Ski Championship Schedule Otepaa, Estonia 

Wed., Jan. 26 Men’s and women’s 10/5k free
Fri., Jan. 28 Men’s and women’s 1.4/1.2k classic sprint
Sun., Jan. 30 Men’s and women’s 20/10k pursuit
Mon., Jan. 31 Men’s and women’s 4×5/3.3k relay

    2011 J1 Trip Details (source: NCCSEF)

    Training Camp: Athletes will depart the U.S. on January 26, 2011. The athletes will travel to Ostersund, Sweden where they will meet up with Head Scando Team Coach Matt Johnson.  Between Jan 27th and Feb 1st the team will be staying at Camp Sodergren in Ostersund, training on the trails adjacent to the lodging.

    Race Week: On February 1st, team will drive to Ornskoldsvik, Sweden where they will be staying and racing for the next week.

  • Canadians Distribute Tickets to World Champs

    Not even temperatures topping out at -18 C could slow down athletes in the classic sprints at Lappe Nordic Stadium in Thunder Bay, Ontario, on Saturday, where tickets to major events were on the line.

    According to press releases from Cross Country Canada, the nation’s governing body, winners of Saturday’s races were all but guaranteed places on the country’s team headed to the U-23 and World Junior Championships in Estonia later this month.

    Patrick Stewart-Jones (Nakkertok Nordic) can start packing after winning the junior men’s sprint, while Foothills’ Heidi Widmer should also be making that trip. She has won two events at Lappe Nordic this week, including Saturday’s junior women’s race.

    Dasha Gaiazova (NST) secured her ticket to the 2011 World Championships in Oslo when she won the pursuit on Thursday. But she saw no reason to let off the throttle on Saturday, and cruised in to win the classic sprint as well. Perianne Jones (NST) finished second to Gaiazova in both races, but she’s already sealed her place in the group headed to Norway, thanks to a qualifying sprint she won in December. (While Jones didn’t win that race outright, she was the first Canadian finisher.)

    Alysson Marshall (Larch Hills) was third in the sprint final on Saturday, but first among the U-23 women, which means that she will almost certainly travel to U-23’s in Estonia, along with Emily Nishikawa (Whitehorse), who was the top U-23 female in Thursday’s pursuit.

    There was no selection for the Oslo World Championships in the men’s sprint race, as Canada used a sprint in December in British Columbia as its qualifyier. George Grey (NST) also clinched a spot in that group with his win in Thursday’s pursuit race at Lappe.

    Brent McMurtry (Foothills) won Saturday’s sprint final, while Stefan Kuhn (NST) was second. Jess Cockney (Foothills), who was third, should be a part of the Canadian U-23 team, along with Kevin Sandau (Foothills/NST) who was the top U-23 athlete in Thursday’s pursuit.

    Men’s results here

    Women’s results here

    Junior men’s results here

    Junior women’s results here

  • APU Fielding Biggest Ever Traveling Team to Nationals

    APU Fielding Biggest Ever Traveling Team to Nationals

    Last year, when the US Senior Nationals were on home turf in Anchorage, Alaska, APUNSC fielded 33 skiers, outnumbering any other team in attendance. This year, the US Nationals are held in Rumford, Maine, about as far away from Anchorage as possible while still being on US soil. And still, APUNSC is bringing one of the biggest contingents.

    Ten senior racers, 10 U23 skiers, five juniors, and five coaches will be sporting the APU Elite uniform in Rumford, for a total of 30 people. This marks the biggest ever travel team from APU to Nationals.

    “We’re taking a bigger crew to nationals even than what we do to the SuperTour,” said Holly Brooks of APU Elite.

    “Part of the idea is to give some of the younger people some national-level racing experience. Plus our top juniors are hoping to make the World Juniors team and the Scandinavian Cup team, in addition to those who want to make the U23 and the World Championships teams,” Brooks explained. She is herself aiming to punch her ticket for the 2011 World Championships in Oslo while visiting Rumford.

    Different objectives

    “The senior team’s goals are to get positions on the podium, aim for the World Championships and further their points. But for most, the focus is on the experience-building. That’s why we want to take as many as possible to get championship experience on the top level for both seniors and juniors,” said APUNSC head coach Erik Flora.

    Flora has J1s and OJs trying for World Juniors, U23 skiers trying for U23 Worlds and seniors trying for the 2011 World Championships.

    “It’s a diverse group with different goals. On a strong day, we can have our team represented on all those teams,” Flora said.

    So far, the whole squad has exceeded expectations this season.

    “The period 1 races at the SuperTour and Nor-Ams were great,” Flora said.

    “We’ve seen a number of people step up and make jumps this year, and a handful of new people making podiums on the SuperTour,” Flora said, adding that he has had a good feeling since this summer.

    “I saw it already on the glacier this summer. The training level has stepped up. Before, we’ve had some skiers who were clearly ahead. This year the whole group skied in the same realm,” Flora said.

    Traveling benefits

    Traveling clear across the country with such a large crew poses some challenges, logistically. However there are also several positives to being on the road as a team, in contrast to staying at home.

    Obviously, at home everyone has their own daily living routines, access to their own vehicles, and the comfort of their own beds. On the other hand, Flora points out the convenience of having all the athletes and coaches in one place.

    “When we’re on the road, everyone is in one place and that’s easy for team meetings and getting skis ready and so on,” Flora explained.

    In practice, the APU squad is divided into two teams in Maine. Half of the athletes, one coach and one wax tech are staying with the development group in one location, and half of the skiers, one coach and two wax techs are staying in a different place.

    Experience

    While for some, this is their first trip to the US Senior Nationals, overall it’s a seasoned group of skiers.

    “They all have experience with travel and camps, and are used to getting together for organized training and racing. So this is not too big of a shock to them,” Flora said, noting that from the start of the training year in May, the team has one week of every month together on the glacier in Alaska.

    Selection

    The APU Nordic Ski Club has more than 250 members. Of its 75 juniors, five will race in Rumford. Flora named 10 senior skiers to the travel team, as well as 10 skiers from the U23 group.

    “It’s hard to make the APU travel team. We have a limited number of spots, and we are definitely leaving some people at home,” Flora said. He explained that the main criteria for making the team is based on last year’s performance, but he also holds some spots open to be filled at a later date. The original plan was to take a crew of 20, leaving 12 skiers at home. But during the fall, Flora was able to add another wax tech and bump the travel squad up to 25 athletes.

    “That was really fun. As a coach, one of the hardest things to do is to name the travel team,” Flora said. “But in general, those who work hard get to make travel team,” he added.

  • 13 Biathletes Selected for World Juniors

    After a three-day series of trials races at Camp Ethan Allen in Jericho, Vermont, the U.S. Biathlon Association (USBA) has named thirteen athletes to the team for World Junior Championships. The event will be held in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, from January 29th to February 5th.

    The team is headlined by top qualifiers Ethan Dreissigacker (Morrisville, VT/Dartmouth College/Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club/Ethan Allen Biathlon Club), Sam Dougherty (Anchorage, AK/Alaska Biathlon/Alaska Winter Stars), Corrine Malcom (Hayward, WI/Maine Winter Sports Center), and Carly Wynn (Queensbury, NY/Saratoga Biathlon).

    “The Junior World Championship team is notable for its mix of experienced athletes like Grace Boutot, Dreissigacker, and Raleigh Goessling, and some new rising stars like Carly Wynn and Corrine Malcome,” said USBA President and CEO Max Cobb.

    Dreissigacker led the junior men’s field at trials, winning two of three races. On the last day, he used fast, accurate shooting as well as some of the fastest skiing on the day to build a huge lead. Goessling was second, as he had been the day before. Dreissigacker and Goessling have been teammates before, and were optimistic about what they could accomplish at World Juniors.

    “The first time with World Juniors, the goal is to get there,” said Dreissigacker. “Now, the goal is to do well there… if I had a good race, I could get up there. Although it’s always hard to tell with biathlon.”

    Goessling, who is taking the year off from school to train for biathlon full time at the Maine Winter Sports Center (MWSC), agreed.

    “I’ve been on teams with Ethan for a couple of years, and I think that both of us have the potential for some very respectable results,” he told FasterSkier.

    The third junior man to make the team was Ben Greenwald of Saint Paul, Minnesota, who is also currently training at MWSC.

    Malcom, another MWSC athlete, led the junior women over the three days of racing. After Boutot (USBA/MWSC) won the sprint on Tuesday, Malcome upped her game and prevailed in the next two competitions.

    “It was really exciting,” Malcom told FasterSkier. “Last year, I jumped into trials really just on a whim. Right now, I’m taking time off from school, so I’ve only been training for biathlon since, well, May I guess.

    “The first sprint race was okay. I shot 50%, which is kind of average for me. In the second race – it’s a shooter’s race because there are four stages, so I kind of said, well, we’ll see what happens. But then I shot 70% which for me was awesome… to be the top American junior was awesome. It’s nice to prove that I have improved.”

    Malcome and Boutot are an interesting pair: unlike Malcom, who has less than a year of biathlon experience under her belt, Boutot has already made three trips to World Juniors and finished second in the youth women’s individual race in Canmore in 2009.

    In the youth men’s division, Dougherty and Sean Doherty (Conway, NH/Saratoga Biathlon) led a tightly-packed field. While they were the most consistent performers, three different athletes won races at the trials: Ray Wonders (Anchorage, AK/Alaska Biathlon) on Tuesday, Dougherty on Wednesday, and Doherty on Thursday. Wonders will join the team at World Juniors, as will Casey Smith (Winthrop, WA/Methow Valley).

    In the youth women’s division, Wynn dominated the field, winning every race by a solid margin. Kelly Kjorlein (Grand Rapids, MN/Mount Itasca) rode two second-place finishes onto the team, and Silke Hynes (Burlington, VT/Saint Michael’s College/Vermont Collegiate Biathlon) used clean shooting to snag a spot as well.

    Tara Garaghty-Moates (West Fairlee, VT/Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club/Ethan Allen Biathlon Club) was named to the team as a discretionary selection, an unusual move. USBA noted her “outstanding ski speed in the trials races” in choosing her for the World Juniors squad.

    Cobb was enthusiastic about the athletes USBA is sending to Europe.

    “Seeing a team of 13 athletes coming from six different states is a great sign of the growth of clubs across the country,” he said in an e-mail. “I am not going to make any predictions about the performances at World Juniors for this year, but I will say that I expect several of the athletes on this team to make a serious run at 2018 Olympic Team – and who knows, maybe one will be on the 2014 team, too.”

    He was also impressed by the organizational know-how he saw in Jericho.

    “It’s been many years since a major event was hosted at the Ethan Allen Firing Range, and I was very impressed with the outstanding work of the club and the wonderful support and cooperation by the National Guard Sports Program. With over 100 youth and junior competitors, this was one of the largest national events for juniors we have had in many years. It is really heartwarming to see, and I think we are seeing the beginning of a blossoming of the sport across the country.”

  • Hendrickson Earns Bronze Medal at Junior World Championships

    Jan. 31, 2010 — Sarah Hendrickson of the Visa U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team captured the bronze medal Saturday at the FIS Nordic Junior World Championships in Hinterzarten, Germany.

    The 15-year-old Hendrickson, who attends junior high in Park City, Utah, is the first American jumper to ever earn a medal at the Nordic Junior Worlds.

    “I don’t think it’s really settled in yet. I’m really happy. I had two really good jumps,” Hendrickson said.

    Italy’s Elena Runggaldier took the world championships gold medal with jumps of 106.5 and 102 meters and an overall score of 267.5 with style points included. France’s Coline Mattel earned silver (103.5, 102, 258.0). Germany placed four jumpers in the top 11 to lead the way, but the top seven finishers were all from different nations, reinforcing the continued universality of women’s ski jumping.

    “I didn’t realize how big of an event this was. It’s huge,” said Hendrickson, who competed in the first FIS World Championships for women’s jumping last February, where her teammate Lindsey Van captured the title. “It reminded me of World Championships, but without the older girls. It was exactly the same.”

    Visa U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team members Nina Lussi and Nita Englund also jumped Saturday. Lussi finished in 27th place with jumps of 84.5 meters and 85.5 meters and a score of 173.0, while Englund finished outside the top 30, posting a jump of 80 meters to just miss qualifying for a second jump.

    Hendrickson, currently the top American in the Continental Cup standings in sixth place, overcame the postponement of the event from Friday’s scheduled time, inconsistent wind and intermittent snow showers to post jumps of 102.5 meters and 97.5 meters on the K-95 hill. She finished with a score of 249.5

    Hendrickson said she didn’t jump well in the pre-event warm-up, but her first competition jump was “one of the better jumps I’ve ever had.”

    In the second round I was just trying to do the same thing,” she added. “It’s a great hill; It’s a K-95, and the hill crew who put it together was amazing. There were men constantly packing it out and putting it together.”

    Hendrickson said some of the jumpers may have benefited a little more than others with the inconsistent winds Saturday, and a 15-minute snow squall in the middle of the competition probably threw some of the jumpers out of rhythm.

    Runggaldier’s win, Hendrickson said, was somewhat surprising because she hadn’t jumped well in practice and had recently been struggling on the Continental Cup. Mattel, however, had been jumping very well recently, finishing second in the Continental Cup event on Jan. 23 in Schonach, Germany.

    As for Hendrickson, she hopes to take some momentum into the remainder of the Continental Cup season, which resumes Feb. 6 in Slovenia.

    “Now, I can tell myself I can have two good jumps in a row and I can do it at a pretty high level. I can do it in a Continental Cup,” she said.

  • Norway Doubles up With Men’s WJ Relay Gold

    Norway Doubles up With Men’s WJ Relay Gold

    Petr Sedov (RUS) leads Finn Krogh (NOR) on the final climb of the today's World Junior men's relay. Krogh passed Sedov and took the victory for Norway.
    Petr Sedov (RUS) leads Finn Krogh (NOR) on the final climb of the today's World Junior men's relay. Krogh passed Sedov and took the victory for Norway.

    Like the women’s relay here, the men’s relay at the World Junior Championships today came down to to the wire. And just like in the women’s race, it was Norway that prevailed.

    As he attacked the last rise, Finn Krogh was able to do something nobody has done yet here: drop Russia’s Petr Sedov in a mass start race. With a Northug-like kick, Krogh propelled the Norwegian men to their first junior relay championship since 2006—when Petter himself was on the team.

    Glued to Sedov all the way up and over the main climb here, Krogh said that his plan all along was to stick with the Russian, then attack at the finish. The move was impressive—Krogh was a whirl of arms and legs—and Sedov was not close, ending up four seconds back.

    Thomas Bing anchored the third place German team, coming across the line 28 seconds behind Krogh.

    The relay, Krogh said, is the crown jewel event for Norway.

    “So it was very good to win,” he said.

    The American team of David Norris, Sam Tarling, Scott Patterson, and Erik Bjornsen came home in twelfth place. Bjornsen skied the anchor leg, and he bridged a sizeable gap to the Swedish skier in front of him in the last 300 meters of the race, though could not quite hold his lead in a tight finishing sprint. The effort left him still out of breath for an interview five minutes later.

    Matt Whitcomb, the head U.S. junior coach here, said that the team got two solid legs from Bjornsen and Patterson, but that with such a strong field, “you have to put four excellent performances together to get into the top six.”

    “Our guys are competitive enough that when we put together four perfect performances, we’re going to be able to stand on the podium,” he said. “But that’s a hard thing to accomplish…Today we put together two pretty good legs, and two great legs.”

    The final climb on the classic loop.
    The final climb on the classic loop.

    The fans were out in droves again today. Tarling said that it was the loudest he’d ever heard a crowd.

    “The top of the hill was something to remember, for sure,” he said.

    Tarling and Whitcomb also noted the performance of the race organizers, who despite challenging weather pulled off a remarkably smooth series of events.

    Georg Zipfel, the chief of competition here, headed a production that was staffed by more than 1,000 volunteers. It was the first large-scale event at the Notschrei Nordic Center—the name of which, perhaps fittingly, translates roughly to “cry for help”.

    He organized the building of new race trails at the venue here, and he said that the these, combined with a rollerski loop, will make the Black Forest a world-class training center for German athletes centered at the Olympic Training Center in Freiburg nearby.

    “This is the last thing that we need, and now we can start,” he said.

    With seven races in seven days, the only people who may have worked harder than Zipfel here were the team’s service crews.

    Those staffs had to contend with inaccurate weather forecasts, heavy snow almost every day, as well as two pursuits, which required the preparation of twice as many skis for each athlete.

    “I knew that seven consecutive days of racing was going to be challenging, and it was more than I even had dared to dream for,” said Abi Holt, one of the members of the American wax crew here. “I’m kind of excited now, though—I feel like I just survived glide waxing boot camp.”

    Men’s World Junior Relay – Complete Results

  • U23 10/15km Classic Photos

    U23 10/15km Classic Photos

    Photos from today’s 10/15km individual start classic at the U23 World Championships in Hinterzarten, Germany. Brittany Webster (CAN) posted the top North American finish placing 5th.

    Women’s 10km Race Report
    Men’s 15km Race Report

    Don’t forget to check out the FasterSkier Junior Racing blog for additional reports and video interviews from the venue.

  • World Juniors Captured

    World Juniors Captured

    Once again FasterSkier’s Nat Herz is able to bring you the feel of today’s World Junior Championship action.

  • 3 of 4 U.S. Women Notch Top Thirties in WJ Classic; Lahteenmaki Wins

    3 of 4 U.S. Women Notch Top Thirties in WJ Classic; Lahteenmaki Wins

    Sophie Caldwell in the 5k classic at the World Junior Championships, Hinterzarten, Germany
    Sophie Caldwell in the 5k classic at the World Junior Championships, Hinterzarten, Germany

    After a strong day by the U.S. U-23 team yesterday, the American junior women said they were feeling the pressure for a strong performance today in the 5k classic.

    “We’ve got to step it up and show that we mean business here,” said Annie Hart.

    While they didn’t exactly match yesterday’s fourth place by Ida Sargent, the juniors did manage a decent show of depth today, putting three of their four women in the top 27. Caitlin Patterson led the way in 17th, with Sophie Caldwell and Hart following in 24th and 27th. All three were within a minute and fifteen seconds of the winner, Krista Lahteenmaki of Finland, while Adele Espy was the fourth American, in 51st.

    Krista Lahteenmaki (FIN) on her way to the win
    Krista Lahteenmaki (FIN) on her way to the win

    Lahteenmaki was followed closely by Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg, a Norwegian who frequently races on the World Cup circuit. Oestberg led halfway through the race by six seconds, but she gave it all up on her second loop to finish three seconds down.

    “I didn’t feel that I went slowly at the end—Krista was tough,” Oestberg said afterwards.

    Monday’s sprint winner, Hanna Brodin (SWE), was another second back, in third.

    Matt Whitcomb, head coach of the American juniors, said that three top-30 results for his women are nothing to scoff at—they used to be “unheard of for the U.S.—we’d get a couple a year. Now we’re shooting for dozens.”

    “The standard has been higher for the last several years,” he said. “The athletes feel it.”

    One of the strengths of the group here, Whitcomb said, is its depth.

    “We don’t have just single athletes that are our only hope in any of these races—we have a full team of athletes that can contend,” he said.

    A slow starter, Patterson said that she favors longer races, and is more jazzed for the upcoming pursuit 10k pursuit on Friday.

    “Do this race and then tack a five k skate on the end of it, plus mass start, I’m really excited,” Patterson said.

    Racing for the U-23 athletes resumes here tomorrow with another individual start classic race. With snow in the forecast, conditions could be more challenging than today’s, but the temperature is expected to stay cold enough to avert any chaotic waxing.

    Link to full results.

    Caitlin Patterson climbing one of the hills in the 5k classic
    Caitlin Patterson climbing one of the hills in the 5k classic
  • 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.

  • World Juniors Sprint: Photos

    World Juniors Sprint: Photos

    Photos from the World Junior Freestyle Sprint in Germany. It was a foggy day in Hinterzarten.

  • In Germany, It’s Another Northug–Tomas Takes WJ Sprint

    In Germany, It’s Another Northug–Tomas Takes WJ Sprint

    Paal Golberg (NOR) leads teammate Tomas Northug at the World Junior Championships in Hinterzarten, Germany
    Paal Golberg (NOR) leads teammate Tomas Northug at the World Junior Championships in Hinterzarten, Germany

    Different race, different Northug, same result. With a finishing kick eerily similar to the one his brother has made famous, Norway’s Tomas Northug won the championship in the World Junior Sprint today in dominating fashion.

    The resemblance between the two brothers is striking, and beyond their facial features, Tomas also has the same blazing speed and Casco headwear made famous by Petter.

    Their attitudes are similar, too. When asked if he had stepped out of his brother’s shadow today, Tomas said no.

    “The shadow was back behind me,” Northug told FasterSkier after the race, clarifying that he would have dropped Petter had he been here.

    Northug’s teammate Paal Golberg and Federico Pellegrino (ITA) finished second and third, but they were not within striking distance.

    The U.S.’s Erik Bjornsen was the only North American male to qualify for the heats. He was sitting in third in his quarterfinal coming off the final hill, but was passed by two others in the last corner and ended in fifth.

    “400 meters before the finish, there’s a sharp corner…and I kind of got blocked out,” Bjornsen said. “Those guys ski pretty nasty.”

    The heat ended up being the fastest of any of the quarterfinals: the two skiers ahead of Bjornsen advanced as lucky losers.

    Tyler Kornfield, who just over two weeks ago raised hopes by winning American championship in the classic sprint, came down with a fever since traveling to Germany and almost scratched today’s race. He still started and nearly qualified, finishing just two seconds out of the top 30.

    Even closer, though, was Eric Packer, who finished in the dreaded 31st position, a tantalizing three hundredths of a second from the heats.

    Over a 1.3 k sprint course, that tiny margin could be closed by a slightly more aerodynamic haircut. But Packer said that he wasn’t too bummed after the race—and he did remembered to stretch for the finish.

    “It didn’t come down to the lunge. I was flat on my back at the finish line, trying to get my toe across,” he said. “That’s kind of what ends up happening when you’re skiing on the bubble. I feel like on a good day I could have been right in there.”

    A thick fog blanketed the race trails all day, adding to the mystique of an already dark and shadowy venue. The conditions gave Northug’s win an eerie aura, as he went into the woods in second place, then materialized out of the fog 30 seconds later with such a big gap over Golberg that some spectators were laughing in disbelief.

    The Norwegian said that he trains with his brother, and that Petter had already sent him a text message by the time of the press conference. Though Tomas wouldn’t divulge exactly what the contents were, he said that it began with a “ha ha ha.”

  • U.S. Women Out in WJ Sprint Quarters; Swede Takes the Win

    U.S. Women Out in WJ Sprint Quarters; Swede Takes the Win

    Sophie Caldwell in her semifinal heat at the World Junior Championships in Hinterzarten, Germany
    Sophie Caldwell in her semifinal heat at the World Junior Championships in Hinterzarten, Germany

    One misstep and one mistake, and it was all over for the American women in Hinterzarten.

    50 meters into her quarterfinal here, Jessie Diggins found herself on the ground, seeing stars. Sophie Caldwell lasted longer, and was in contention to advance, but she lost crucial ground coming into the final turn that she could not make up in the finishing sprint.

    Sitting in third on the final downhill, Caldwell swung to the outside of the ensuing righthand corner to try move up. But two more skiers snuck inside Caldwell as she tried to advance into second place, then held her off on the finishing straight, relegating the American to fifth place in the heat.

    “I kind of made a tactical error,” she said, adding that her fitness was not what held her back in the heats. “It was felt good to be in there, but it was a pretty big bummer not to be up there.”

    Diggins’ heat was more spectacular, even if it was still no more successful. Soon after the start of the sprint, the course makes a hard left into a downhill, and Diggins, with a middle lane choice, found herself getting squeezed by the Russian on her right. Before she knew it, she was on the ground.

    “Diggins took a digger,” said Matt Whitcomb said.

    Chasing fiercely, it looked like Diggins might have made up some ground on the pack in front of her. But they were too far ahead to be caught.

    Sprinting never leaves a lot of margin for error, but the races here today seemed especially tight. Many stayed together for their durations, separating only in the last few hundred meters.

    “There were a lot of tactics involved today,” Caldwell said.

    The racing is cutthroat in Europe—certainly more so than at Nationals.

    “It’s as aggressive as you’ll find on the World Cup here,” Whitcomb said. “Our guys know that, and they’re just as aggressive as the next…we have no excuses for today.”

    Sweden’s Hanna Brodin took the final, avenging last year’s loss to today’s second place finisher, Invild Flugstad Oesberg of Norway. Kari Oeyre Slind (NOR) was third.

    She's all legs--Sweden's Hanna Brodin leads one of her heats
    She's all legs–Sweden's Hanna Brodin (r) leads one of her heats

    Brodin is a short, stocky chunk of muscle, her legs almost as large as some of the other girls’ waists. She had a blistering start from the gun, almost gapping the field into the first corner, and led wire-to-wire, although it wasn’t certain until the finishing stretch

    Three quarters of the way through the heat, it looked like Brodin might be petering out after her fast start, and Oestberg seemed to be making up ground. But coming around the final corner, the 19-year-old Swede put in one last acceleration, and was able to hold her gap to the finish, giving a half-hearted lunge that it didn’t look like she really needed.

    Both races were delayed for nearly an hour between the quarterfinals and the semis, as officials had to turn to the manual timing to determine the lucky losers after a snafu with the starting gun.

    The athletes were all subjected to the same wait, though, and Brodin said she wasn’t fazed.

    Racing continues here tomorrow with an identical sprint for the U-23 men and women. The next junior race is a 5/10k classic on Wednesday.

  • World Junior, U-23, and Scando Cup Teams Named

    Simi Hamilton will lead the way at the U-23 World Championships
    Simi Hamilton will lead the way at the U-23 World Championships. Photo: Stuart Jennings

    The U.S. Ski Team named its 2010 World Junior, Under 23 and Scandinavian Cup teams yesterday at the 2010 ConocoPhillips U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage.

    The top two results from each athlete’s three races this week were used to determine the teams.

    The group “is peppered with some very strong skiers, some of whom will have a chance to take a swipe at a podium or top ten finish,” said Matt Whitcomb, the U.S. Ski Team’s development coach. “Simi [Hamilton] is a medal contender in the skate sprint event.”

    The World Junior and U23 Championships will be held Jan. 24-31 in Hinterzarten, Germany. The Scandinavian Cup will be held in Kuopio, Finland, Jan. 29 – 31, and represents the top U.S. athletes under the age of 17.

    “For a lot of these athletes, this will be inspiring and exciting to race in a U.S. Ski Team suit, representing the U.S. internationally,” said Matt Johnson, one of the coaches for the team.

    The Scandinavian Cup is an introductory international championship competition that brings the best young athletes from the Scandinavian nations and the United States for a series of races later this winter.

    Under 23 Team
    Elizabeth Stephen, 22 years old, pre-qualified, USST/BMA, East Montpelier, Vt.
    Ida Sargent, 21, Craftsbury Green Racing Project, Craftsbury, Vt.
    Rebecca Rorabaugh, 20, APU Nordic Ski Center, Fairbanks
    Sadie Bjornsen, 20, Methow Olympic Development Project, Mazama, Wash.
    Kate Fitzgerald, 22, APU Nordic Ski Center, Palmer
    Rosie Brennan, 21, Dartmouth Ski Team, Park City, Utah

    Noah Hoffman, pre-qualified, 20, USST/AVSC, Aspen, Colo.
    Patrick Johnson, pre-qualified, 20, Middlebury Ski Team, Anchorage
    Tad Elliott, 21, CXC Team Vertical Limit, Durango, Colo.
    Simeon Hamilton, 22, Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, Aspen, Colo.
    Reese Hanneman, 20, Fairbanks Alaska Ski Team, Fairbanks
    Peter Kling, 22, APU Nordic Ski Center, Shelburne, Vt.

    World Junior Championships Team
    Sophie Caldwell, 19, Dartmouth Ski Team, Peru, Vt.
    Caitlin Patterson, 19, University of Vermont, Anchorage
    Anne Hart, 17, Minneapolis Ski Club, Stillwater, Minn.
    Joanne Reid, 17, University of Colorado, Palo Alto, Calif.
    Adele Espy, 19, Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, Freeport, Maine
    Jessie Diggins, 18, coaches’ discretion, CXC Training, Afton, Minn.

    Scott Patterson, pre-qualified, 17, Alaska Winter Stars, Anchorage
    David Norris, pre-qualified, 19, Fairbanks Alaska Ski Team, Fairbanks
    Tyler Kornfield, 19, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Anchorage
    Eric Packer, 19, Dartmouth Ski Team, Anchorage
    Erik Bjornsen, 18, Methow Olympic Development Project, Mazama, Wash.
    George Cartwright, 18, Northern Michigan University, Lander, Wyo.

    Scandinavian Cup Team
    Katie Gill, 17, Bridger Ski Foundation, Bozeman, Mont.
    Kinsey Loan, 17, Alaska Nordic Racing, Eagle River
    Kate Backstrum, 17, Alaska Winter Stars, Anchorage
    Annie Liotta, 16, Alaska Winter Stars, Anchorage
    Karina Packer, 17, Alaska Winter Stars, Anchorage
    Isabel Caldwell, 17, Stratton Mountain School, Peru, Vt.

    Logan Hanneman, 16, Fairbanks Alaska Ski Team, Fairbanks
    David Sinclair, 17, Green Mountain Valley School, Waitsfield, Vt.
    Bridger Tyler, 17, Stratton Mountain School, Jamaica Pikes Falls, Vt.
    Will Wicherski, 16, Bogus Basin Nordic Team, Boise, Idaho
    Michael Vigers, 16, Boulder Nordic Racing Team, Boulder Colo.
    Austin Cobb, 17, Stratton Mountain School, Peru, Vt.

  • Norway and Russia Win World Junior Relays

    Norway and Russia Win World Junior Relays

    World Juniors Relay - Norway, 1st Place
    World Juniors Relay – Norway, 1st Place

    Praz de Lys, France – The Norweigan women and Russian men closed out the 2009 World Junior Championships with victories in the relay.

    The women raced a 4×3.3km event with two classic legs and two skate legs. The favorite, Norway, won in convincing fashion, led by Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg, who captured her fourth gold of the Championships as the anchor leg.

    Sweden, the one team with the depth to compete with Norway, finished second, 30 seconds back. The two teams opened up a 40 second lead on the first leg. Marte Kristoffersen, sick all week, and making on ly her second start, took the tag for Norway and skied away from Sweden’s Emma Wiken on leg two. Kristoffersen gave Norway a 15 second lead, and though Sweden battled back to within 6 seconds on the third leg, Oestberg easily outdistanced Hanna Falk on the last loop to seal the win.

    Said Maiken Caspersen Falla (NOR) “We had a really good team today. We were hoping for the gold medal, so we are now really happy! We had a nice day and enjoyed it!”

    Hanna Falk of second place Sweden added “It was a good race, we are very satisfied with the silver medal! Norway has strong competitors and we knew before that the victory was going only to Norway.”

    Germany finished third, staging an impressive comeback after lead skier Karolin Wilhelm handed off in 10th a minute back on the leaders. Anchor skier Hanna Kolb made up 14 seconds on the Finns and 36 seconds on the Russians to claim the final podium spot, just two seconds up on the those teams.

    The US finished 7th, +2:39 and one minute behind Germany in third. The team skied a consistent race with Sophie Caldwell, Sadie Bjornsen, and Jesse Diggins all turning in the 6th fastest times in their respective legs. Third leg skier Adele Espy was 10th.

    Canada finished 10th in the 11 team field.

    In the men’s race, Russia, who took the top 4 places in yesterday’s 10km freestyle, skied to a clear victory. The Russians held an 11 second lead after one leg of the 4x5km event, a cushion that quickly grew to 1:08 by the end of the race.

    The Russian Team of Raul Shakirzianov, Petr Sedov, Pavel Vikulin and Andrey Kalsin each posted the fastest time of their leg.

    Sedov took home his third gold medal of the Championships.

    Summer up Sedov, “the team gets on really well and that is what helped us to have such a good race!
    Thank you everybody – it was a great Junior World Championships for us!”

    The race for the silver was closely contested with four teams within 13 seconds. Germany came out on top edging Norway by seven seconds.

    Said Hannes Dotzler of the German Team, “we had a bad start but managed to catch up. It is the best result we could done because the Russian team is very strong. We wanted the 2nd place and got it so we are pleased.”

    The US finished 12th in the the 17 team field, + 3:45, and Canada 9th, +3:00. Canada’s Graeme Killick posted the second fastest time on the first leg.

    World Junior Relay – Complete Results

    Team Russia
    Team Russia
  • Russia Sweeps World Junior Podium

    Russia Sweeps World Junior Podium

    World Juniors Men's 10km Podium - 2009
    World Juniors Men's 10km Podium – 2009

    Praz de Lys, France – The Russian men swept the podium, taking the top 4 spots in the 10km freestyle individual start at the World Junior Championships. Petr Sedov won his second straight gold, skiing to a convincing 32.6 second victory over teammate Andrey Kalsin. Pavel Vikulin was another 3.1 seconds back in third. Raul Shakirzianov was fourth, 10 seconds back of Vikulin.

    Sedov, started fast, and was clearly the strongest skier throughout. Vikulin started fast, but faded in the second lap as Kalsin moved up.

    This was Sedov’s fourth Junior World medal, and the first for his two teammates.

    Said Sedov, “It was a good race for me, I am happy to take my second victory, but I must say I was more happy last time. I have to say thank you to the entire team, the coaches and the service stuff. It would not be possible to take the top four places without their great help. I started the race slow and tried to push hard at the end – this tactic worked out.”

    The US was led by Noah Hoffman in 14th, +1:31. Teammate Patrick Johnson was just 12 seconds back in 19th. Lex Treinen was 43rd and George Cartwright 59th in the 92 man field.

    Canada was led by David Greer in 24th, a mere .1 seconds ahead of teammate Graeme Killick in 25th.

    World Junior racing concludes tomorrow with the relay.

    Men’s World Junior 10km Freestyle – Complete Results

  • Oestberg Wins Third Straight World Junior Race

    Oestberg Wins Third Straight World Junior Race

    World Juniors Women's 5km Podium - 2009

    Praz de Lys, France – Invild Flugstad Oestberg (NOR) won her third consecutive race at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Praz de Lys (FRA) in 5 km Individual start freestyle.

    The 18-year-old Norwegian bested Lisa Larsen of Sweden by 3.7 seconds. Third place went to Oestberg’s teammate, Hilde Lauvhaug, 6,1 seconds back. The pre-Championshp favorite, Marthe Kristoffersen (NOR), is still sick and did not start today.

    Conditions were excellent in Praz de Lys, with sunny skis and temperatures well above freezing.

    Oestberg, who will compete at the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Liberec, has now won 5 Junior World Champion medals (three individual victories this year and one team and a second place in 2008).

    After the race she commented, “I started very fast in today’s race, maybe too fast. At the 3.3 km intermediate point I felt tired, but at the same moment I heard that I was in the lead by 7 seconds. Then I pushed hard and it was enough for the third victory. It is amazing – I never expected three gold medals. I was hoping for a medal but never expected three golden ones. But I also feel very sorry for Marthe (Kristoffersen). She was sick last year and also this year – that is sad.”

    Larsen is no stranger to the podium as well, with two top-3 finishes in Malles, Italy last season. For the 19-year-old Lauvhaug, it is her first medal at the Junior World Championships – her previous best was a fourth place in Tuesday’s Pursuit.

    Said Larsen, “It was a very good race for me, better and better towards the end. I hoped to make the podium but I was not sure. For tomorrow, I will try to take a medal with my team. We are good, but the Norwegians are also very strong.”

    Scandinavia claimed the top 5 spots in the race, and 6 of the top 10.

    The US was led by Sadie Bjornsen in 29th, +1:18.7. Teammates Adele Espy, Jesse Diggins, and Amy Glen finished 39th, 59th and 64th respectively.

    Canada was led by Marliss Kromm in 41st.

    Racing at the World Junior Championships concludes tomorrow with the relays.

    Women’s World Junior 5km Freestyle – Complete Results