Petra Madjic of Slovenia won the women’s sprint. Video of her quarterfinal.

FasterSkier caught Andy Newell in action on video during his sprint qualification and quarter final heat.

MEN’S FINALS

2:07 MST, A Final. Birthday boy Boerre Naess (NOR) won the men’s A Final, followed by teammates Ola Vigen Hattestad, Eldar Roenning, Anders Gloersen, and Tor Arne Hetland. Russian Nikita Kruikov finished 6th. All 6 double-poled the entire course.

What you can not tell from the results is that Canmore is one of the most beautiful ski venues in the World.

The Norwegian men took 5 of the top 6 spots in the classic sprint qualification. Boerre Naess led the way with a 1.56 second victory over Nikita Kriukov of Russia. Several of the Norweigans opted to double pole the entire course - an impressive display of strength. Torin Koos had his best qualification performance of the season, finishing 7th, +3.75. Andy Newell advanced with an uncharacteristically slow 16th - especially in classic. Chris Cook will ski in his first World Cup heats of the season, squeaking through in 30th, just .05 seconds ahead of Canadian Stefan Kuhn.

Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) won the women’s sprint qualification round by 1.38 seconds over Petra Majdic (SLO). Astrid Jacobsen (NOR) was third. No American women qualified.  Kikkan Randall finished 33rd, just under  a second out of the final spot. She was 14.28 seconds behind the winner.  Laura Valaas finished 41st, Lindsay Williams 45th, Kate Arduser 51st, and LIndsey Dehlin 59th in the 59 woman field. Canadians Sara Renner and Chandra Crawford qualified in 15th and 25th respectively.  The two Canadian women will be racing in the same quarterfinal - Heat 3 - scheduled for 12:40 MST. 

Sara Renner qualifying in 15th. 

Kikkan Randall qualifying in 33rd 

The men’s and women’s classic sprint qualification gets under way in 30 minutes.  Conditions are excellent - cold and clear, with rock hard tracks.  The sprint course has only one significant climb, and while it has some length, it is not particularly steep.  Read more for a full description of the course and who is racing for the North Americans (use the “more” button to the right).

After each race is a press conference with the top three finishers – once they have cleared doping controls. It is interesting to see the athletes up close and see how they react to their success. The men’s winner, Nikolai Pankrotov couldn’t stop smiling, clearly thrilled with his first World Cup victory. He also talked about the strong performance by the women’s team – who took second and third. All three of the top women seemed quite happy with their results. Axel Teichmann of Germany, who took third in the men’s race, was the only top finisher who seemed indifferent at best.

Nikolai Pankratov of Russia earned his first World Cup victory, coming form the middle of the pack to win the men’s 30km pursuit. Italian Giorgio DiCenta took second and Axel Teichmann (GER) won a photo finish to take third. The lead group consisted of 22 skiers, and the final sprint for the win was a tight six. Canadian Devon Kershaw was the local story of the day. Kershaw looked extremely strong from the start, maintaing position in the top five and taking the lead on several occasions - including leaving the stadium for the last 3.75 km lap - much to the delight of the crowd. Kershaw admitted that he might have burnt too much energy at the front. He still finished an impressive 16th, with teammate George Gray just behind in 17th. Ivan Babikov, who gained Canadian citizenship last week, finished 13th. American Kris Freeman finished at the back of the lead pack in 22nd place.

The men’s 30km is under way.  The field remained one large pack after 3.75 km, but things are beginning to open up a little bit in the second classic loop.  Swede Anders Soedergren has broken off the front and is holding a 7 second lead at 6 km in.