February 17, 2012 (Szklarska Poreba, Poland) – The USA’s Kikkan Randall skied with tremendous heart in the women’s World Cup 1.6km skate sprint event in Poland today, overcoming recent illness and an ill-timed crash to take the bronze in the women’s final, which was won by Ida Ingmarsdotter of Sweden.

Today’s women’s races featured equal measures of excitement and disappointment for Nordic fans. In the day’s big shocker, the home country favourite, Justyna Kowalczyk, failed to move beyond her quarterfinal heat. Skate sprints have long been Kowalcyzk’s weakness (if she can be said to have one), and she only qualified 24th, but the Polish fans were crushed nonetheless. Perhaps more surprising  was World Cup overall leader Marit Bjoergen’s (NOR) failure to get out of the quarters as well. Bjoergen finished 5th in the same heat as Kowalczyk.

The women’s final did not disappoint, however, producing a dramatic contest between four out of the top five sprinters in the World Cup rankings, including current leaders Randall and Natalia Matveeva (RUS). Fans of Randall were stunned in the opening few hundred metres when she and Matveeva both crashed hard after crossing skis. In the blink of an eye Randall had a good thirty metre gap to make up to the leaders, but she dug deep and closed the gap relatively quickly, while Matveeva appeared to give up.

“For a split second I couldn’t believe this was happening, AGAIN!,” Randall told SkiTrax, “but then I  jumped back up determined to try to catch back up. Luckily all of my equipment was intact. I had to work pretty hard but I was able to catch the pack right as we headed up the climb.

“I knew I still needed to move up so I tried to make up ground on the outside.  Towards the top of the hill, the others responded and we all pushed hard over the top.”

Randall was in the mix for the remainder of the race, despite the expenditure of energy needed to regain contact with the leaders, and looked capable of a miraculous come-from-behind victory, but was beaten at the line by Sweden’s Ingmarsdotter and Maiken Falla of Norway, who edged Randall out in a photo finish for the silver medal.

The bronze medalist explained after the race: “Four of us were tightly packed heading down the stadium, I stayed to the inside so I could make a move off the last downhill.  I managed to glide up towards the front off the final turn and came into the homestretch with a chance to win.

“But when I went to switch into my finishing gear, I didn’t have my full power left and I couldn’t fight off Ingemarsdotter and Falla who were closing hard. I miss-timed my lunge at the finish as well, loosing the photo finish for 2nd with Falla. I think that early surge to catch back up drained my finish power.”

With today’s bronze medal Randall takes over fourth spot from Charlotte Kalla (SWE) in the overall World Cup rankings, and solidifies her grip on the sprint crown with a 129-point lead over Matveeva.

Two other North American women qualified for the heats in Poland today, including the USA’s Jesse Diggins and Canada’s Dasha Gaiazova. Diggins qualified a strong 12th but couldn’t keep pace in her quarterfinal heat, finishing 23rd on the day. Gaiazova, who qualified 29th, drew the same heat as Diggins and looked a strong near the front mid-way thru course, but also ran out of gas near the end.

Five other North American women hit the start line this morning but failed to qualify for the heats. Canada’s Alysson Marshall finished in 35th less than a second from the qualifying, while teammates Chandra Crawford and Perianne Jones finished 38th and 40th, respectively. Among the American women who didn’t qualify were Ida Sargent (46th) and Liz Stephen (47th).

Women’s qualifications HERE.
Women’s final results HERE.