March 16, 2011 (Oslo, Norway) – Could there be anything more beautiful than Stockholm’s waterfront, its historic old town where the royal palace is located, along with a Scandinavian spring sun? If you add the top sprinters in the world on a 1-km classic track encircling the palace and a very enthusiastic crowd, well yes even this irresistible scene becomes even more irresistible.

With the media centre holed up in a building that has housed a church since 1279, and thousands upon thousands of Stockholm citizens, including the royal family, surrounding the undulating course, history seeped everywhere, and Sweden had sweet revenge.

Women’s Sprint: Petra Majdic is Magic

Olympic and world championship bronze medalist Petra Majdic of Slovenia had the fastest qualifying time of 2:29:30, putting her in start position in a red shirt quarter-final heat, which she won handily. Every time she clipped down her bindings it was as if she had an extra cylinder from the split second the gun went off, on every flat where double polers had a distinct advantage, to the climbs and corners, and the finish line: Madjic dominated, and eventually took the gold and the Red Bib as the overall series Sprint winner – her third overall title.

It was a stunning acclimation of her talent and passion after recovering from her tragic fall and injuries suffered at Vancouver 2010 as the Slovenian star will retire after this season.

“To win the third time the crystal globe for the Sprint World Cup means a lot to me. Especially when looking back one year to Vancouver and my accident there. It is amazing to win it and I feel great. This morning I felt really good and confident and I could show it already in the qualification where I took the lead. I want to thank you to all those, who supported me and helped me in my career. My big thank you also goes to the fans,” Majdic said in a FIS XC interview.

Norway’s multi-gold medalist from the recent Worlds, Marit Bjoergen would eventually follow on Madjic’s heals, taking the silver in the final. She started the quarter finals in the yellow shirt heat with the third fastest qualifying time, 1:34 seconds back of Madjic. She took her quarter final heat easily, with overall World Cup champion Justyna Kowalczyk at 1.5 seconds back of Bjoergen.

Team USA’s Kikkan Randall was close behind Kowalczyk in third and squeezed through to the semi final as the lucky loser – her heat was the fastest as she and Alena Prochazkova of Slovakia had the 9th and 10th fastest times from the quarters.

Randall had an aggressive start in her semi, but Visnar led into the first corner with Bjoergen close behind ready to dominate the race. Sweden’s Ingemarsdotter hit the first climb in the lead, to the delight of the partisan crowd, and overtook Visner, but she couldn’t maintain the pace. Bjoergen worked to bring her back, and Randall held on, but couldn’t quite challenge the leaders.

Kowalcyzyk took an outside lane on the last climb to the finish, with her ferocious leg turnover, but, as often seems to be the case, those in front of her – Visnar, Bjoergen and Ingemarsdotter – had superior glide, and style.

Bjoergen bested Visnar in a photo finish with Ingemarsdotter in third. Kalla followed behind Kowalcyzk in 5th with Randall taking the final position, to place 10th overall. Her teammate, Holly Brooks, also on the start line did not make the top 30 cut finishing 34th overall. But Randall, ever the optimist, was already loading her gear onto the bus to Falun where she will contest the final races of the world cup circuit this weekend.

“Today was a pretty solid day for me. I knew I was going to have to ski well to stay on the overall sprint cup podium. I felt great in the qualifier. Started a little too spastic but had a strong finish. My previous best qualifying time in Stockholm was 27th so I was pretty happy with 13th,” Randall told SkiTrax by email as she made her way to Falun for the rest of the World Cup finals.

“I drew a tough quarterfinal with Bjorgen, Kowalczyk, Follis and Brun-lie! I knew the pace would be fast so just tried to hang in there and ski hard all the way to the line,” she continued.

Randall said coming out the other side as the lucky loser psyched her for the semi. “In the semi I had a great start and first climb. Lost my rhythm in a couple essential double-pole sections, just for a few poles, which left too much ground to make up for on the final climb. But almost caught back Kalla and Kowalczyk at the line. Definitely still have some work to do on my double-pole, but it’s coming.”

Given that Randall’s specialty is skating, she’s very happy with her 10th place position. “Super psyched to have held on to 3rd in the [overall] sprint cup. Only 7pts down to Follis is pretty sweet. I had never even been in the top 10 before so this was a big improvement, especially because we never planned to go after it. Next year will be a good chance to go after the red bib and crystal globe! Tenth place also sets me up well for the start of the mini-tour. Hopefully I can keep this good momentum rolling!!”

Meanwhile, Canada’s Perianne Jones had a breakthrough performance, qualifying in 24th for the quarter final and pulled out all the stops for a stellar run to advance to the semi-finals.

In her quarter final heat she beat hometown favourite Anna Haag and other top Europeans by sticking to a patient, but consistent plan, never losing contact with the leaders, hitting the corners with enough speed to put her right in the pack on the next straightaway, but not being so aggressive that she had nothing left for the finish.

Jones performed an absolutely perfect final sprint, edging by each teammate, to the last 150 metres, which included a final climb and short straightway to the finish. Only veteran skier Aino-Kaisa Saarinen of Finland was faster than Jones, who came across the line 0:1 seconds back of the Finn, and 0:4 seconds ahead of Italy’s Magda Genuin, making for a stunning upset. She couldn’t hold this same form thru her semi and finished 5th in a photo finish with Kalla to claim a remarkable 12th overall.

The final heat saw Madjic do what she had done in the quarters and semis. At the start she shot out like a gun and after approximately 200 metres of wicked double poling by the entire field, she found the fastest line into the first corner and took teammate Visnar with her.

With intense focus she attacked fearlessly the same way on the second corner, but this time she was at the bottom of a downhill, and broke the field up with her unrelenting speed. There was no way she was slowing down; the fight was for the silver.

Bjoergen picked up the pace, pushing past teammate Falla and Swede Ingemarsdotter. She is able to make a gap that no one could match and went from skiing stride for stride with the others to finishing alone at 2.9 seconds back of Madjic.

Bjoergen’s teammate Maiken Caspersen Falla took the bronze at 1.1 seconds back while Ingemarsdotter followed in 4th at 1.7 seconds behind. Alean Prochazkova of Slovakia finished 5th and Katja Visnar of Slovenia was 6th.

By the final, the sun had cast long shadows hidden behind the castle. Skiers scurried to team buses on their way to Falun for the conclusion of the World Cup, and thousands of fans poured from bleachers and vantage points around the track to celebrate yet another day of skiing in a land where the skiing never seems to stop.

Qualifications HERE.
Final Results HERE.
Final WCup Sprint Standings HERE