January 22, 2008 (Canmore, Alta.) – By the 12:30 pm start of the men’s race, conditions had warmed up considerably at Canmore. With the sun shining and no wind, the 58-man field gave fans the most fantastic of races with Canada’s Devon Kershaw trading the lead position until the last 3km when the Germans, Italians, Swedes and Russians attacked one another on each climb.

Olympic gold medalist, Beckie Scott, who provided colour commentary for the race, predicted with three kilometres left in the race that it would be “a sprint finish with a lot of guys.” She was bang on! Eighteen skiers charged the final descent to the finishing stretch with the Russians, Italians, Germans and Swedes back in charge.

In a finish impossible to call, Russian Nikolai Pankratov powered it out to take gold in 1:16:33.8, with Italian and Olympic gold medalist Giorgio di Centa 0.4 seconds behind. Third place was deliberated as World Cup points leader Axel Teichmann and Tobias Angerer both of Germany skied to the exact same time of 1:16:34.4. Finally, Teichmann was given the bronze with his teammate in fourth. Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer took fifth, at 1 second behind Pankratov.

Devon Kershaw of Sudbury, Ontario and George Grey of Sovereign Lake,B.C. had top twenty performances in 16th and 17th place respectively – 7.7 and 8.4 seconds behind the winner. US top skier Kris Freeman was in the mix as well with the lead group and finished in 22nd at 38.2 seconds behind Pankratov.

It was Pankratov’s first WC victory and he said that the weather had worked well for the Russians. “For the [Russian] national team we had good weather. The Russian girls were second and third, and I think. The Russian team needed a victory on the podium today and I managed it.”

Pankratov, like di Centa, thanked his team’s wax technicians for “very, very fast skis.” But the real story for Canadians was the powerful skiing of Kershaw who was always in the top five until the last three km when the four European countries continued to set an unrelenting pace.

“I felt good, but probably wasted a little too much energy. Live and learn,” said Kershaw to the crowd, who gave him massive applause on each lap. Later Kershaw said that there was no big move to the front by any team or skier, just a constant pace. “There was nothing I could do to get back to the front. I wasn’t in the best position [for the sprint].”

Grey was very happy with his result, saying it was important to realize that he could ski with the front guys. “It’s a big change for me, huge change and I’m very, very happy,” said Grey.

Racing starts on Wednesday, January 23 at 10:00 am with the 1.2 km sprint.

Results

1. Nikolai Pankratov (Rus) 1:16:33.8
2. Giorgio Di Centa (Ita) at 0:04
3. Axel Teichmann (Ger) 0:06 (won photo finish)
4. Tobias Angerer (Ger) 0:06
5. Pietro Piller Cotrer (Ita) 0:10
13. Ivan Babikov (Rus) 0:4.8

16. Devon Kershaw (Can) 0:7.7
17. George Grey (Can) 0:8.4
22. Kris Freeman (USA) 0:38.2
38. Lief Zimmermann (USA) 4:06
39. Dan Roycroft (Can) 4:44
41. Brian McKeever (Can) 5:30
42. Robin McKeever (Can) 5:37
43. Michael Sinnott (USA) 6:41
44. Chris Jeffries (Can) 7:03
45. Lars Flora (USA) 7:19
46. Gord Jewett (Can) 7:19
47. Zachary Violett (Can) 7:54
48. Zach Simons (USA) 8:35
49. Garret Kuzzy (USA) 9:04

DNF Dave Nighbor (Can)
DNF James Southam (USA)
DNF David Chamberlain (USA)

Full Men’s results.