November 19, 2011 (Sjusjøen, Norway) – If Sweden’s Johan Olsson was feeling any lingering effects from a shoulder injury suffered earlier in the fall, he wasn’t showing it at this morning’s opening World Cup race of the season, an individual start men’s 15k freestyle race in Sjusjoen, Norway.

Olsson bested a deep men’s field that included most of the sport’s biggest names, beating local favourite and second place finisher, Petter Northug Jr, by 31 seconds. Italy’s Roland Clara captured his first WCup podium in third, a mere 0.2 seconds behind Northug.

Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson was an early starter whose initial time held up for a while before he was knocked out of the big furry chair, although it was still good enough for a career-best 4th place in the end.

Leading the North American contingent was Alex Harvey, who finished 5th at less than 10 seconds off the podium. However the rest of the North American men finished well back. Among the Canadians, Devon Kershaw raced to a 37th place finish, followed by Ivan Babikov (42), Len Valjas (64th), and Graham Nishikawa (71st).

On the US side, Kris Freeman was 55th, followed by Tad Elliot (60th), Andy Newell (63rd), Lars Flora (65th), and Noah Hoffman (79th). Simi Hamilton was a DNS. In a post-race comment to SkiTrax Newell said, “Today wasn’t a great race for me but it was a good chance to put a bib on and go hard.

“I haven’t done anything close to a ski race since the Climb to the Castle [in September], just mostly intervals and stuff. The course was really rolling which meant you had to be working the flats so if you weren’t able to recover well while free skating it was a tough day..”

Full results HERE.

Results (brief)

1. Johan Olsson (SWE) 32:40.3
2. Petter Northug (NOR) 31.2
3. Roland Clara (ITA) 31.4
4. Calle Halfvarsson (SWE) 38.6

5. Alex Harvey (CAN) 40.6
37. Devon Kershaw (CAN) 1:37.1
42. Ivan Babikov (CAN) 1:41.3
55. Kris Freeman (USA) 1:55.0
60. Tad Elliott (USA) 2:07.4
63. Andy Newell (USA) 2:10.3
64. Lenny Valjas (CAN) 2:11.1
65. Lars Flora (USA) 2:11.2
71. Graham Nishikawa (CAN) 2:27.6
76. Noah Hoffman (USA)
DNS Simi Hamilton (USA)