With two races down at the 2010 Junior National Championship in Presque Isle, ME, New England has come out strong.  With a total of 946 points the New England team is clearly the team to beat.  The Alaskan team showed strength in the FOJ class during the sprints and in both boys and girls J1 classes during the classic distance race.  They lurk in second with a total of 584 points, while the Intermountain Division is holding on to third with 385 points.

Complete Alaska Cup Points.

With a Northug-like kick over the last rise, Finn Krogh propelled the Norwegian men to a relay victory here in Hinterzarten.

Glued to Russian phenom Petr Sedov for the last of four legs, Krogh held on until the pair reached the stadium, then unleashed a move that the Sedov couldn’t match. It was the first victory for the Norwegians in the relay since the 2006 championships in Kranj, Slovenia, when Northug himself was on the team.

The Americans came home in twelfth place, anchored by Erik Bjornsen. He bridged a sizeable gap to the Swedesh skier in front of him, but could not quite hold his lead in the finishing sprint.

Full report to come.

Hanna Brodin (SWE) leads Norway's Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg on the final leg of the women's relay at the World Junior Championships

After the Norwegian junior women swept the pursuit here on Friday, there didn’t seem to be much of a question of who would win today’s relay. And all the way until the last hundred meters of the race, that held true.

With pursuit champion Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg anchoring her team and leading by five seconds over the last small hill on the course, Norway appeared to have things in the bag. But a ferocious charge by Finland’s Krista Lahteenmaki on the finishing stretch took Oestberg to the limit-while it wasn’t quite enough, if the course had been five or ten meters longer, it probably would have been.

Hanna Brodin of Sweden tried to drop Oestberg on the course’s main climb, and she paid the price. Oestberg passed her over the top, and then Lahteenmaki went by Brodin in the stadium like she was standing still. Sweden still managed to hold on to third, however.

The American women fought their way to an eighth place finish, just ten seconds from the top six, with their teammates screaming encouragement from the side of the trail. Canada was farther back, most likely out of the top ten.

Complete report to come.

After Petr Sedov’s domination of the junior 20k pursuit here yesterday, it seemed unlikely that anyone would be able to outdo in the 30k U-23 version today.

Enter Romanian Paul-Constantin Pepin.

On the second of four 3.75k skate loops, he put in a hard acceleration on the course’s big climb, breaking away despite the best efforts of Andreas Katz (GER) and Tad Elliot to match the move.

For the next two laps, he used a quirky skate technique to build up a big lead, entering the stadium with enough time for a lengthy victory celebration. He seemed barely out of breath at the finish.

Norway’s Ole Marius Bach and Katz followed in second and third-far back. Those two beat a Japanese skier-that country’s fourth fourth-place finish here.

Elliot looked very good on course-he managed to stay with the lead pack for the entire classic leg, which is normally his weaker technique. When Pepin made his move on the hill, he joined Katz in trying to reel him in. But Elliot told FasterSkier that that move may have been too much for him-by the end of the race, he had faded to 21^st.

The Canadian men ended their week here with a bang, as Frederic Touchette and Graeme Killick were sixth and seventh, respectively.

Noah Hoffman was the only other American finisher in 34^th. Peter Kling and Reese Hanneman-the two other American starters-battled hard to stay ahead of Pepin on their seventh of eight laps. It appeared that they had succeeded, as they still had a 30-second gap on him coming into the stadium, but officials pulled the racers anyway.

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.

After losing out on medals in the first two events here, Petr Sedov resumed his winning ways in the men’s 20k pursuit today at the World
Junior Championships in Hinterzarten.

Sedov, who won all of the races in the same championships last year in France, had already dropped the entire field before he had even
finished the classic portion of the race.

Petrica Hogiu of Romania was a distant second, and Finn Haagen Krogh of Norway followed in third. Scott Patterson was the top American finisher in either 19th or 20th, pending a photo finish.

Full results and report to come.

It took her three tries, but Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg would not be denied.

Through some tough conditions that seemed engineered to suit her 5′5″, 125 pound frame, Oestberg dropped the field in the women’s 10k pursuit here en route to her first gold medal here.

It was redemption for the Norwegian-undefeated at World Juniors last year in France-who had been relegated to silver in this week’s sprint and classic races.

Two other Norwegians completed the sweet for their country, with Heidi Weng in second and Tuva Toftdahl in third.

With many of them starting in poor positions, the American women put three of their athletes in the top 25, led by Joanne Reid in 18^th. Caitlin Patterson followed in 23^rd, with Jessie Diggins in 25^th and Annie Hart in 38^th.

Check back later for video, photos, and a full report.

A pair of Pisten Bullies out on the race course in Hinterzarten, trying to whip the trails into shape before the start of the women's World Junior Championships pursuit

With 40 minutes to go before the start of the women’s 10k pursuit at World Juniors, it is snowing heavily, making for a rough day for service crews that already have the challenge of waxing two pairs of skis for each athlete.

Organizers in Hinterzarten are grooming heavily, sending their massive Pisten Bullys around the course in pairs. They’ll be hard pressed to keep up with the snowfall, however, and regardless, the tracks will not have time to set up.

U.S. Wax Tech Randy Gibbs said that his crew’s primary concern is making sure that his athletes have skis with the right flex for the conditions today–it does not appear to be warm enough to bring hairies or klister into play.

Check out a quick video preview with Gibbs from the American wax room on FasterSkier’s YouTube page.

Stanislav Perliak (RUS) on his way to second place in the men's 15k classic

With little recovery, some big climbs, and a layer of new snow, the 3.75k course here in Hinterzarten is a tough one. By the time the U-23 men here had been around it four times, they got to know it pretty well.

Today’s 15k demanded not just fitness, but restraint and smart pacing, and the winner here, Vladislav Skobelev (RUS), clearly had that mastered. Back in seventh place after one lap, Skobelev worked his way up through the field over the next three circuits to win by 20 seconds over teammate Stanislav Perliak. Gennadly Matviyenko (KAZ) was another second behind in third.

Noah Hoffman led the way for the Americans in 20^th. He skied a restrained race, something he’s been practicing, he said.

“It was better than what I’ve been doing recently-still not great yet,” he said.

Kevin Sandau was the top Canadian finisher, in 13^th.

Full report, photos, and video to come.

R-L Ida Sargent, and U.S. coaches Janice Sibilia, Scott Johnston, and Matt Whitcomb

After a day of respite, nature hit back at the U-23 Championships this morning with a four-inch dose of snow, then with the same wet fog that already plagued two of three races here.

The fluffy snow that fell made for some tricky skiing, but it didn’t seem to upset the hierarchy here in Hinterzarten, and it was a Finn, Kerttu Niskanen, who rose to the top. She was followed by two Russians, Alevtina Tanygina and Svetlana Nikolaeva.

Brittany Webster of Canada had a strong day, skiing to a top-ten finish. FasterSkier caught her for a post-race interview.

According to Matt Whitcomb, one of the American coaches here, the four American women struggled with pacing. A number of them had strong starts, but he said that it looked like all of them faded out of the top-20.

Results, report, and photos to follow.