Astrid Oeyre Slind (NOR) winning the U-23 Championships Women's 15k pursuit in Hinterzarten, Germany

After working with one of her Norwegian teammates for the second half of the race, Astrid Oeyre Slind won the women’s U-23 Championships 15k pursuit today.

She outkicked Hilde Lauvhaug on the final uphill, after the two had distanced the rest of the field on the last lap. Svetlana Nikolaeva (RUS) was third, passing Yuki Kobayashi in the final kilometer to knock the Japanese skier off the podium. It was the third time in as many days that a Japanese athlete was fourth.

After two days of constant snow, the weather today was much tamer, with a few small flurries that fell throughout the pursuit, and it made for a more tactical race that seemed like it was less about survival, and perhaps more about pacing.

Canada’s Brittany Webster learned that the hard way, putting in a hard kick to stay with the lead group, but then dropping back to eighth place by the finish. She said that the push she made to stay with the Norwegian was “a little too much for my legs.”

Sadie Bjornsen led the Americans for the Americans in 26^th. Check out a quick YouTube video with her here. Becca Rorabaugh and Ida Sargent were 31st and 33rd, respectively, with Kate Fitzgerald in 38th.

Tags: Astrid Oeyre SLind, Brittany Webster, Hilde Lauvhaug, Svetlana Nikolaeva

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 6:39 am and is filed under Results, Update, World Juniors/U23. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.