The official results are in. Read here!

Once again we will try to provide results after every heat. Please click the “more” link to the lower right and refresh that page for the most recent results. The heats begin at 12:30 MST.

We now have complete men’s results.

Andy Newell qualified in 2nd, .08 behind Emil Joensson. Torin Koos was 17th, +2.50, Garrott Kuzzy 29th, +3.85.

Chris Cook finished 33rd, a mere .16 seconds out of qualifying. The men’s race was unbelievably tight - the top 30 were all within 4 seconds of the leader, and another 12 skiers were one second or less out of qualifying.

Read more for details!

An excellent start to the sprint day for the US and Canadian ski teams. The US qualified three men - Andy Newell, Torin Koos, and Garrott Kuzzy, and one woman - Kikkan Randall.

Randall rebounded from a dissappointing classic sprint to qualify in a blazing 5th place. Newell also charged back from a sub-par performance in the classic sprint - qualifying in 2nd.

The Canadians put four women in the top 30 - led by Chandra Crawford in 2nd. Sara Renner guaranteed a fourth consecutive race with World Cup points, qualifying in 23rd. Perianne Jones was 25th and Sarah Daitch 29th.

Long time US skiing presence Karin camenisch, skiing for her native Switzerland qualified in 26th.

At least three Canadian men advanced.

Virpi Kuitunen had the best women’s qualifying time. The field spread out dramatically. Crawford was half a second behind the Finn, and Italian Magda Genuin +2.88. The times back for the next 5 4 finishers jumped dramatically - +9.81, +11.43, +15.04, +20.89.

The corner leading out of the stadium foiled a number of qualifying attempts. It did not appear to be particularly difficult, but a number of skiers tripped and several went down. IT appeared that the inside was skied off, causing the outside ski to wash out into softer crud. Laura Valaas (USA) got tripped up, and while she didn’t fall, she lost significant time.

The fourth and final World Cup event in Canmore, Alberta gets under way this morning at 10:00 AM MST with the qualification round.   Women start first, followed by the men at 10:25.

The freestyle sprint course is substantially different from the loop used for Wednesday’s classic sprint.  Skiers exit the stadium in the opposite direction and immediately climb up the first of two significant hills.  After a quick drop that will allow the racers to carry significant momentum the course climbs again, before dropping down to the 180 degree turn that marked the entrance to the finish stretch in the classic sprint as well.  The course is marginally shorter and features the same long gradual uphill to the finish.  View the course profile at the official Alberta World Cup site using the link on the left. (Read more for US racers and favorites).

Here is a selection of photos from the Mens 15 km Freestyle.  More to come!

 Leif Zimmermann

Valerio Checchi of Italy won his first World Cup event, besting Rene Sommerfeldt of Germany by 8.3 seconds. Fellow Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer was third, 13.2 seconds back.

Kris Freeman gained World Cup points with a 29th place finish. Freeman was 14th after 5km and 24th after 10km. He finished 1:28 out of the win.

Valentina Schevchenko of Ukraine won the women’s 10km freestyle individual start. Evgenia Medvedeva was second with Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) third. Schevchecnko, an excellent skater who won the Tour de Ski Final Climb by over a minute, clearly took to the hilly 5km loop in Canmore. This was her second victory of the season, following the Tour de Ski stage win.

Another beautiful morning in Canmore. Tempertures are a bit warmer, and it looks to be a great day for skating.

The women’s 10km individual start freestyle race begins at 11:00AM MST. The course is similar to the classic loop used for the pursuit with several additions to bring the length to 5km. The racers will again be challenged by the long steep climb that broke up the pack in the classic leg of the pursuit. Starting roughly 1.25km into the loop, the hill meanders up for nearly a kilometer, with several sort plateaus.

After an excellent qualifying round, where he finished 7th, Torin Koos unfortunately broke a pole on the first climb of his quarterfinal. Watch the video!