November 29, 2013 (Kuusamo, Finland) – Kikkan Randall has upped the ante adding her first Classic Sprint podium to her string of historic firsts as she delivered a silver medal performance today in the women’s 1.4km CL Sprint final at the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland. Vermont’s Ida Sargent raised some eyebrows as well finishing 16th with a strong 1/4 final heat almost advancing as a lucky loser while Alaska’s Sadie Bjornsen drove home a stellar 3rd place finish in the qualifications creating quite the stir as well as she finished 26th overall.

Women's final CL Sprint podium (l-r) Randall 2nd, Kowalczyk 1st, Herrmann 3rd © Nordic Focus

“It was a perfect way to start the season,” Randall told SkiTrax. “I had some good indications last weekend that the body was feeling pretty good so I made sure I had steady training. Yesterday I had a good pre-race with the girls and we were all feeling good coming into today. It felt awesome to have great skis and strong finishes every time.

“My strategy was to conserve energy early in the race and push hard up the latter part of the big climb and be really strong at the end and that worked really well. In the final I got caught behind a crash and had to work harder but i was still able to have good energy at the end and I was finally able to grab that classic sprint podium.” – full interview to follow

Poland’s dynamo Justyna Kowalczyk took a decisive victory opening up a strong lead on the big climb in the final, as she did in each heat, while Denise Herrmann (GER) settled for third as Randall passed her in the finishing straight for her first classic podium.

Randall came 4th in the classic sprint in Kuusamo in Nov. 2011 so clearly the chilly Finnish venue is becoming a favourite for the Alaskan star. The big surprise of the first official World Cup race of the season was Norwegian queen Marit Bjoergen not advancing thru her quarterfinal to end up 13th.

In the men’s race Andy Newell (USA) did not advance past his quarter final heat ending up 24th. He was in the fastest men’s quarterfinal and just missed out on being a lucky loser. Eirik Brandsdal (NOR) took the win over top qualifier Anton Gafarov (RUS) in second with former Sprint Cup champ Teodor Peterson from Sweden in 3rd.

The second surprise at the opening race was the Canadian team not qualifying any skiers into the heats in both races. Dasha Gaiazova, who had a strong season last year, flew over to Kuusamo early in the week which may have affected her energy. But Head Coach Justin Wadsworth didn’t expect much given that this was the team’s first official race of the season.

Justin Wadsworth © skitrax.com

“I wasn’t expecting too much this weekend given that this is our first race of the season,” Wadsworth said in a phone interview with SkiTrax. “We just came from altitude and solid training blocks and we’re not trying to ski too fast this early in the season – we want to conserve and have good energy come February.

“I was a little surprised that Alex and Dasha didn’t qualify because they have both been looking strong but I’m not worried as all of them have been showing great shape through training and they’re where we expected them to be.

“Despite the results there were some positive signs as everyone skied well and it looked like our training sessions to improve technique are on track. More good news is that Lenny’s knee is recovering well and he skied strong today. We’re satisfied with his progress. The plan through the weekend is to ski all the distance races but we’ll keep an eye on Lenny and see how he feels. We hope to see some better results but again, we’re not trying to come out too fast.”

As for Perianne Jones having a late start due to illness and Chandra Crawford racing on her own in Sweden Wadsworth said, “We hope that Perianne recovers and is able to make it to the Asiago World Cup and that Chandra will continue to work well in Sweden. We were looking for a better qualification than 27th in the sprint given that field but she’ll continue to improve and hopefully join the team soon.”

Women’s final here.
Men’s final here.