December 11, 2005 – In the men’s final World Cup Sprints, Norwegian Tor Arne Hetland took gold with a dramatic last minute dash to the line winning over Swede Bjoern Lind with the bronze going to the young and up and coming Norwegian skier, Ole Vigen Hattestad. In fourth and fifth place were Swedes Mikael Oestberg and Peter Larsson.
The U.S. men’s team had fabulous results with all three qualifers finishing in the top 15 overall. Andy Newell led the American charge finishing in 11th, while Chris Cook was 12th with Torin Koos in 14th. They all just missed out advancing to the semi finals as each finished a close third in their respective quarter final heats. This was the first time three U.S. men finished in the top 15 of a World Cup sprint.
Canadian skiers Sean Crooks, Philip Widmer and Drew Goldsack also skied well finishing 25th, 26th and 28th respectively. Widmer who qualified fourth had an unfortunate crash in his quarter final heat.
Hetland, Lind and Hattestad were humble warriors at the post-race press conference. Hetland, 31 years old, has competed in 100 World Cup events and has 10 wins. “So for every ten races, I win,†he said, “Those are pretty good odds.â€
Lind was pleased with his sprint result, he did not race in the pursuit due to an upset stomach and had problems until the day of the sprint race. “I had not been able to eat until this morning. I felt better and was so glad to race today and especially happy with my result.†When asked how he liked the Canadian races he commented that they were well-organized, and the people were all happy and helpful and that this made his team feel very much at home.
World Cup Sprint Final – Men’s Results
1 HETLAND Tor Arne NORÂ
 2 LIND Bjoern SWEÂ
 3 HATTESTAD Ola Vigen NORÂ
 4 OESTBERG Mikael SWEÂ
 5 IVERSEN Trond NORÂ
 6 ROENNING Eldar NORÂ
 7 EIGENMANN Christoph SUIÂ
 8 LARSSON Peter SWEÂ
 9 FREDRIKSSON Thobias SWEÂ
 10 BJERKELI Haavard NORÂ
 11 NEWELL Andrew USAÂ
 12 COOK Chris USAÂ
 13 ANGERER Tobias GERÂ
 14 KOOS Torin USAÂ
 15 VON ALLMEN Peter SUIÂ
 16 KJOELSTAD Johan NORÂ
 17 PASINI Renato ITAÂ
 18 OESTBERG Fredrik SWEÂ
 19 ONDA Yuichi JPNÂ
 20 KOUKAL Martin CZEÂ
 21 DAHL John Kristian NORÂ
 22 ZORZI Cristian ITAÂ
 23 DARRAGON Roddy FRAÂ
 24 ALYPOV Ivan RUSÂ
 25 CROOKS Sean CANÂ
 26 WIDMER Philip CANÂ
 27 SVARTEDAL Jens Arne NORÂ
 28 GOLDSACK Drew CANÂ
 29 NAESS Boerre NORÂ
 30 FAFALIS Lefteris GREÂ
 31 FLORA Lars USAÂ
 32 KRECZMER Maciej POLÂ
 33 SCHWIENBACHER Freddy ITAÂ
 34 JEFFRIES Chris CANÂ
 35 TEICHMANN Axel GERÂ
 36 STOCKINGER Martin AUTÂ
 37 PYYKOENEN Lauri FINÂ
 38 HOEGBERG Anders SWEÂ
 39 ZIMMERMANN Leif-Orin USAÂ
 40 JOUTSEN Jari FINÂ
 41 KREZELOK Janusz POLÂ
 42 FANJAS CLARET Sylvain FRAÂ
 43 STOEGGL Thomas AUTÂ
 44 YAMAGISHI Osamu JPNÂ
 45 RODGERS Colin D USAÂ
 46 KOMAMURA Shunsuke JPNÂ
 46 EGOSHIN Dmitriy RUSÂ
 48 MURRAY Paul AUSÂ
 49 HOCHTL Kevin USAÂ
 50 SEIFERT Benjamin GERÂ
 51 RICHMOND Kit CANÂ
 52 CARLETON Erik CANÂ
 53 KURTTILA Keijo FINÂ
 54 MCKEEVER Brian CANÂ
 55 SKVARIDLO Davorin SVKÂ
 56 JEWETT Gordon CANÂ
 57 MURRAY Ian CANÂ
 58 ARGUE Mike CANÂ
 59 NISHIKAWA Graham CANÂ
 60 SIM Ben AUSÂ
 61 KOONS Benjamin NZEÂ
 62 DERRICK Ben AUSÂ