December 11, 2005 – In the men’s final World Cup Sprints, Norwegian Tor Arne Hetland took gold with a dramatic last minute dash to the line winning over Swede Bjoern Lind with the bronze going to the young and up and coming Norwegian skier, Ole Vigen Hattestad. In fourth and fifth place were Swedes Mikael Oestberg and Peter Larsson.

The U.S. men’s team had fabulous results with all three qualifers finishing in the top 15 overall. Andy Newell led the American charge finishing in 11th, while Chris Cook was 12th with Torin Koos in 14th. They all just missed out advancing to the semi finals as each finished a close third in their respective quarter final heats. This was the first time three U.S. men finished in the top 15 of a World Cup sprint.

Canadian skiers Sean Crooks, Philip Widmer and Drew Goldsack also skied well finishing 25th, 26th and 28th respectively. Widmer who qualified fourth had an unfortunate crash in his quarter final heat.

Hetland, Lind and Hattestad were humble warriors at the post-race press conference. Hetland, 31 years old, has competed in 100 World Cup events and has 10 wins. “So for every ten races, I win,” he said, “Those are pretty good odds.”

Lind was pleased with his sprint result, he did not race in the pursuit due to an upset stomach and had problems until the day of the sprint race. “I had not been able to eat until this morning. I felt better and was so glad to race today and especially happy with my result.” When asked how he liked the Canadian races he commented that they were well-organized, and the people were all happy and helpful and that this made his team feel very much at home.

World Cup Sprint Final – Men’s Results

1 HETLAND Tor Arne  NOR 
 2 LIND Bjoern  SWE 
 3 HATTESTAD Ola Vigen  NOR 
 4 OESTBERG Mikael  SWE 
 5 IVERSEN Trond  NOR 
 6 ROENNING Eldar  NOR 
 7 EIGENMANN Christoph  SUI 
 8 LARSSON Peter  SWE 
 9 FREDRIKSSON Thobias  SWE 
 10 BJERKELI Haavard  NOR 
 11 NEWELL Andrew  USA 
 12 COOK Chris  USA 
 13 ANGERER Tobias  GER 
 14 KOOS Torin  USA 
 15 VON ALLMEN Peter  SUI 
 16 KJOELSTAD Johan  NOR 
 17 PASINI Renato  ITA 
 18 OESTBERG Fredrik  SWE 
 19 ONDA Yuichi  JPN 
 20 KOUKAL Martin  CZE 
 21 DAHL John Kristian  NOR 
 22 ZORZI Cristian  ITA 
 23 DARRAGON Roddy  FRA 
 24 ALYPOV Ivan  RUS 
 25 CROOKS Sean  CAN 
 26 WIDMER Philip  CAN 
 27 SVARTEDAL Jens Arne  NOR 
 28 GOLDSACK Drew  CAN 
 29 NAESS Boerre  NOR 
 30 FAFALIS Lefteris  GRE 
 31 FLORA Lars  USA 
 32 KRECZMER Maciej  POL 
 33 SCHWIENBACHER Freddy  ITA 
 34 JEFFRIES Chris  CAN 
 35 TEICHMANN Axel  GER 
 36 STOCKINGER Martin  AUT 
 37 PYYKOENEN Lauri  FIN 
 38 HOEGBERG Anders  SWE 
 39 ZIMMERMANN Leif-Orin  USA 
 40 JOUTSEN Jari  FIN 
 41 KREZELOK Janusz  POL 
 42 FANJAS CLARET Sylvain  FRA 
 43 STOEGGL Thomas  AUT 
 44 YAMAGISHI Osamu  JPN 
 45 RODGERS Colin D  USA 
 46 KOMAMURA Shunsuke  JPN 
 46 EGOSHIN Dmitriy  RUS 
 48 MURRAY Paul  AUS 
 49 HOCHTL Kevin  USA 
 50 SEIFERT Benjamin  GER 
 51 RICHMOND Kit  CAN 
 52 CARLETON Erik  CAN 
 53 KURTTILA Keijo  FIN 
 54 MCKEEVER Brian  CAN 
 55 SKVARIDLO Davorin  SVK 
 56 JEWETT Gordon  CAN 
 57 MURRAY Ian  CAN 
 58 ARGUE Mike  CAN 
 59 NISHIKAWA Graham  CAN 
 60 SIM Ben  AUS 
 61 KOONS Benjamin  NZE 
 62 DERRICK Ben  AUS