February 27, 2008 (Mals, Italy) – Canada’s Alex Harvey continued his assault with top placings finishing 4th again on Wednesday in the 20km Freestyle mass start at Val Venosta, Italy. All four Canadian boys were in the top group of 15-20 skiers for the first 10-15kms with Harvey and Fred Touchette doing their share of leading.

It was then that the lead skiers started to put on the push to the finish and broke the group up into a 4-skier pack and the chase was on. When the all-out sprint took place Harvey, although feeling good, couldn’t answer as he was having problems with the circulation in his left leg. The race was won by Germany’s Philipp Marschall in 48:29.6.

USA’s Noah Hoffman, in 58th place after the first 5kms, pulled out the stops over the next 5kms to pull himself back up into 24th where he continued to jockey until the finish line and his 23rd ranking.

Marshall Outsprints US Ladies to Capture Top North American Position
In the ladies 10km freestyle mass start championship won by Therese Johaug (Nor) the Canadian ladies had to dig their way out of a bunch of miserable seeding to positions to get into the mix of the race. Then it was a battle of Alysson Marshall and Marlis Kromm from Canada against the USA’s Ida Sargent, Rosie Brennan and Alexa Turzian to sew up places 35, 36, 37, 39, and 40th place. Marshall passed Sargent and Brennan in the last 200 meters of the race.

Friday is the relays for both the men and women.

Results

Men

1. Philipp Marschall (Ger) 48:29.6
2. Petr Sedov (Rus) 48:30.1
3. Andrey Gridin (Kaz) 48:30.1

4. Alex Harvey (Can 48:41.3
14. Fred Touchette (Can 49:34.8
23. Noah Hoffmann (USA 50:44.9
25. Kevin Sandau (Can) 50:48.8
31. Max Treinen (USA)51:18.3
40. Reid Pletcher (USA) 52:11.0
58. Julien Nury (Can) 53:23.2
67. Kevin Cutts (USA 54:24.4

There were 89 finishers.

Women

1. Therese Johaug (Nor) 25:24.7
2. Laure Barthlemy (Fra) 25:28.7
3. Lisa Larsen (Swe) 25:29.2

35. Alysson Marshall (Can) 27:10.7
36. Ida Sargent (USA) 27:14.2
37. Rosie Brennan (USA) 27:15.0
39. Alexa Turzian (USA) 27:21.2
40. Marlis Kromm (Can) 27:27.4
49. Sophie Caldwell (USA) 27:53.2
58. Stephanie Drolet (Can) 28:26.0

There were 71 finishers in the race.