February 21, 2019 (Seefeld, AUT) – The USA’s Simi Hamilton raced to 9th in the men’s 1.6km Sprint FR race with Canada’s Alex Harvey 16th as Norway’s Johannes Klaebo was crowned world sprint champion. Italy’s Federico Pellegrino settled for silver while Russia’s Gleb Tetivykh finished third.

“I didn’t feel like I had the best energy today and my quarterfinal was really pinged the whole time and that took a lot out of me,” said Hamilton. “My plan was to use the second half of the course to draft and try to move up in the pack, but the pace was high at the start and the pack stayed together. I focused on a hard finish and it just wasn’t enough.”

Harvey, who qualified 18th, was fourth in his quarterfinal and did not advance. “I was expecting things to feel different today, but there really was no difference for me. For me, it was a World Championships and I am always so motivated for these big races. This was a good start and I hope to build on it throughout the week.”

The U.S. men qualified three of four starters with Kevin Bolger finishing 19th and Logan Hanneman 27th. Canada’s Len Valjas was 51st, Evan Palmer-Charrette was 64th and Russell Kennedy, coming off a recent career-best 12th, has been battling a cold and did not start.

An incident during the heats between Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov and Klaebo saw both skiers remain on their skis but Ustiugov was not happy and shoved Klaebo in the finish area as the two exchanged comments. Ustiugov was disqualified due to clash with Klaebo after crossing finish line. According to TASS he received two yellow cards, one for unsportsmanlike behavior, and one for creating obstacles for his opponent during the race – read more here.

The World Championships continue on Saturday with the men’s and women’s skiathlon.

Men’s Sprint Qualifications here.
Men’s Sprint Finals here.