December 21, 2014 (Davos, Switzerland) – Italy’s Federico Pellegrino claimed his first ever World Cup Victory winning the men’s 1.3km FR Sprint as Canada’s Len Valjas, in 18th, led three North Americans into the heats.

In second place today was Alexey Petukhov of Russia grabbing his second podium of the season while current overall sprint leader, Finn Haagen Krogh, took third giving Norway yet another podium.

Final podium (l-r) Petukhov 2nd, Pellegrino 1st, Krogh 3rd © Nordic Focus

All three North Americans including Simi Hamilton and Jesse Cockney were eliminated in their respective 1/4 final heats. Valjas posted the 12th fastest qualifying time but did not have the snap to respond to the surge down the finishing stretch ending up fourth in his heat.

The USA’s Hamilton was glad to be back after being sick and looked good in his quarter final but stumbled and went down the second time up the hill and finished 5th in his heat and 23rd overall.

Len Valjas (CAN) © Nordic Focus

“It was great to be back out there in the fight. I didn’t feel great in the qualifier, but I think that was mostly a result of basically taking the last week completely off. Today was pretty much my first day back doing anything hard, and I didn’t really know what to expect from my body. But it was nice to at least push my body again, even though I felt like I had the snappiness of a 15km. I’m not totally 100% health-wise, but I wanted to head into the holiday break with a little bit of confidence and motivation so qualifying 14th helped that.

“I felt way better in my quarter than the quali, and I felt like I made all the right tactical moves until I went down on the final climb. I was in a great position to push into the lead because I knew that Emil [Joensson] was fading a little bit, and right as I threw the hammer down to get past him my right foot caught a sheet of ice just as my tip caught some of the soft snow on the climb. I went down before I could figure out what happened but fought to get back into contention. I took an aggressive line on the outside on the final turn and felt like I had so much speed coming into the finish lanes, but I got squeezed right against the boards by Sebastian and couldn’t do anything with my great momentum.

Simi Hamilton (USA) © Nordic Focus

“It’s for sure frustrating to end the day like that, but I’m really psyched heading into this training block before the Tour de Ski knowing that my speed and fitness are close to being back to normal after a weird last couple weeks. Our techs gave us amazing skis today, which makes the pill that much harder to swallow, but we’re all super-motivated to come out swinging in a couple weeks when the Tour starts. It’s easy to feel frustrated after what has been somewhat of a slow start to the season for a lot of us, but we all know that we want to be skiing as fast as possible come February and as a team we’ve always been good at being patient and having confidence in our season’s goals and plans,” he concluded.

Cockney, 25, of Canmore, Alta., had his top World Cup result on European snow qualifying 23rd for the heats. He received a warning for a false start that looked suspect on the replay and in the end drew the fastest 1/4 final heat finishing 6th placing 29th overall.

Jesse Cockney (CAN) © Nordic Focus

“I’m really happy to be in the top-30 again,” said Cockney, whose best World Cup result was a ninth place finish in Canmore, Alta. “I’ve been close already this year, but being in the points is a wicked Christmas present!”

“The false start was no big deal, I don’t think I false started but it is what it is. I’m happy with today and the pre-Christmas WCs and I feel like I’m in a good form for the rest of the year,” he added.

We also caught up with Team Canada’s World Cup coach Tor Arne Hetland for his assessment of the first period of racing.

“Lenny [Valjas] and Jesse [Cockney] did well in the prologue today. They also skied well in the heats but where not tough enough to get the right position. Devon [Kershaw] and Perianne [Jones] did not ski fast enough. Alex [Harvey] has raced a lot at the start of the season and was training today.

“The first period has been OK, some new personal best and some good skiing from all of the athletes. The team is good and have potential. Hopefully with some easier days over the Christmas break the athletes see better results at the Tour de Ski,” he commented.

Qualifications here
Final results here.