February 03, 2016 (Drammen, Norway) – The USA’s Simi Hamilton was the top North American finishing 11th in the 1.2k classic sprints at Drammen as Norway’s Petter Northug Jr. double poled his way to another sprint CL victory on home snow. Canada’s Alex Harvey  was the top Canuck in 20th as an all-red Norwegian podium ruled the day.

Simi Hamilton © Nordic Focus

“I’m definitely happy with how I skied today, but I would have loved to have felt better during my semifinal, ” said Hamilton. “I was 7th here 4 years ago, but I think today ties my 2nd best classic sprint result, so that’s something to feel good about. My skis were unbelievable all day long, and I was happy that I chose to stride versus double pole.

Hamilton qualified in 12th as Canada’s Len Valjas in 19th and Alex Harvey in 28th also made the heats. Alexander Panzhinskiy of Russia topped the field. Harvey looked good as a Lucky Loser but it was Hamilton who advanced to the semis as his heat was faster and he skied well to finish third.

Alex Harvey © Nordic Focus

“I’m still not the greatest classic sprinter, but when I can find places to power stride and use my strong legs, it definitely plays to my advantage. I’ve still got a ways to go to improve my double pole endurance, but I’m confident that it will continue to improve and I’m looking forward to lots of double-pole specific training in the future,” Hamilton continued.

Valjas and Hamilton raced in the same 1/4 final with the Canadian moving to the front at the start and looking strong as he controlled the race for the first 2/3rds of the course. But as they skied onto the flats before the finish, Valjas was swallowed up ending up 5th with Hamilton 3rd.

In his semi Hamilton looked strong at the start but was unable to keep pace ending up 6th in his heat and 11th on the day.

The final saw Norway’s Northug battle on the climbs as he and Ola Vigen Hattestad were the two no-wax skiers in the field. On the downhills he soared to pass everyone and claim his first individual World Cup victory since 2014. Hattestad was second and Eirik Brandsdal was third.

(l-r) Ola Vigen Hattestad (NOR), Petter Northug (NOR), Eirik Brandsdal (NOR) © Nordic Focus

“I was fortunate to follow Lenny up the long climb out of the start in our quarter final. He’s such a smooth strider and it worked great with my tactical plan going into the heat to just follow him and conserve energy during the first half of our quarter. I made a good move on the outside coming around the 180 turn at the far end of the course, and was able to stay high enough in the standings of our heat to secure a lucky loser spot into the semis. I definitely pushed hard down the finish stretch because I know that every hundredth of a second in a sprint can make a huge difference,” he explained

“But it’s always extremely tolling to be the second lucky loser in the fifth heat of the quarters because it means that you have about 5 minutes of recovery before you have to start in the first semifinal. So I was pretty blown out when the gun went off for our semi, and felt like I hadn’t really recovered at all from my quarter, but I fought hard to maintain a good position. I managed to find some really fast, icy corduroy on the far right side coming down the downhill, which set me up wide for the 180 corner, which is exactly the way I wanted to ski it since you can pick up a valuable second if you ski that bottom corner really aggressively on the outside where it stays tacky throughout the day.

Len Valjas © Nordic Focus

“Unfortunately, I just ran out of gas in the last 150 meters and I think my effort from the quarters really caught up to me there. But I’m definitely satisfied with my result today, and I think it was a good reminder that my fitness is in a really good place right now and with a good training and racing schedule coming up I’ll be able to maintain that fitness and speed into and throughout the Canadian tour, which I’m really looking forward to,” Hamilton concluded.

Qualifications here.
Results here.