October 22, 2005 – Canada’s top nordic skiers got their feet wet – literally – while sprinting along the banks of the Rhine in their opening World Cup cross-country skiing sprint event of the season Saturday in Düsseldorf, Germany.

With a goal of measuring where they stand against the world’s best at this time of year, the five Canadians who hit the start line for the sprint event should have exchanged their race suits for wet suits as rain pelted down on the 1.5-kilometre sprint track.

However, it was 21-year-old Chandra Crawford of Canmore, Alta. who faired the best after a challenging early-season test for the Canadian squad. While none of the five Canadians qualified for the top-16 head-to-head heats, the World Cup rookie finished a respectable 28th in the event.

“We wanted to come here and get rid of some of the jitters, fine tune some skills and get a sense of where we stand against the top skiers in the world since we spend so much time training on our own at home,” said Dave Wood, head coach, Canadian Cross-Country Ski Team, who added the skis just were running fast on Saturday. “We aren’t very happy at all with our results, but I thought Chandra came here and slugged it out and put in a solid performance and got the job done.”

Joining Crawford in the women’s sprint for Canada was 2005 World Championship bronze medallist, Sara Renner of Canmore, Alta., who finished a disappointing 37th, while Dasha Gaiazova of Montreal finished in 51st position. Devon Kershaw, of Sudbury, Ont. who is also competing full-time on the World Cup circuit for his first time this year, finished 37th in men’s racing, while George Grey of Rossland, B.C., crossed the line 60th.

It was no surprise in the women’s event winner. Marit Bjoergen continued her winning ways after claiming last season’s World Cup title, by crossing the line first. Finland’s Aino Kaisa Saarinen, who grabbed the silver medal, joined Bjoergen on the podium, while Russia’s Natalia Matveeva was third.

On the men’s side it was Sweden’s Peter Larsson who took home his first gold medal of the season after stretching out across the finish line ahead of Norway’s Tor Arne Hetland who settled for second spot. Larsson’s teammate, Thobias Fredriksson, rounded out the top three.

The World Cup will continue on Sunday for Canada’s cross-country skiers in Germany when they compete in the team sprint. Canada’s Devon Kershaw and George Grey will look to reclaim some of the magic they found at last year’s World Championships when they finished sixth together in the team sprint discipline.