March 01, 2014 (Lahti, Finland) – Paal Golberg (NOR) powered to victory earning the second World Cup win of his career as soft snow conditions resulted in crashes and minor collisions ending several skiers day early including Canada’s Alex Harvey and the USA’s Andy Newell.

In the men’s final both Olympic gold medalist Ola Vigen Hattestad (NOR) and Matias Strandvall (FIN) crashed on their own – similar to the women’s final – as Alexey Petukhov (RUS) claimed second and Eirik Brandsdal (NOR) was third behind Golberg. Brandsdal takes over the Sprint Cup lead by a mere 4 points over Joseph Wenzl (GER) with Hattestad another 30 points back.

Harvey, Newell and Simi Hamilton (USA) made the heats with Harvey acing his quarter final while Newell suffered a disembodied ski soon after the start in collision with Nikita Kriukov (RUS) making for a frustrating day for both skiers. Hamilton was unable to find a way through to the leaders in his heat ending up 5th in his quarter final.

In his semi final Harvey was looking poised for another strong finish when he and Emil Joensson (SWE) had a minor collision in one of the final corners that tripped up the Canadian but miraculously he stayed upright and was still able to finish 3rd, yet he did not advance as a Lucky Loser ending up a solid 7th on the day.

We caught up with Hamilton and Newell post race for their take on the day.

“I’ve been pretty sick for the last few days and didn’t make the call to race until about 10:30am this morning. So all things considered, I’m somewhat happy with how everything went for me. I didn’t feel great at any point in the day, but I still wanted to fight hard in both the qualification and heats. I did get off to a bad start when Sebastian Eisenlauer and I tangled coming out of the start lanes (fortunately for me I didn’t break my pole like I did in Sochi),” commented Hamilton.

“It was extremely hard to get around anyone on this course and in the really sugary conditions and I didn’t want to burn the few matches I had too early on the account of feeling really, really low energy all day. So my plan in the quarter was to just ski relaxed wherever I was in the pack and then try to move up throughout the second part of the course. I got kind of pinched with Eisenlauer again coming over the bump for the 2nd time, but managed to get around him and into a better position in the pack.

“I managed to avoid a crash on one of the late corners, but lost some valuable momentum coming into the long backside stadium stretch. Regardless of my health and my energy, I’m psyched that I gained a few more points on the day as World Cup Finals draws closer. I’m in one of the last spots to go right now, so I’m just focusing on getting totally healthy and hopefully having another good day on Wednesday in Drammen. And of course I am super excited for both Kikkan and Sophie. Kikk gaining the Red Bib and Soph’s first podium! It’s always a great feeling when your teammates do really well,” added Hamilton.

“Conditions out there were classic Lahti sugar snow with some ice underneath. It’s not a particularly challenging course but the uphill get super soft and sugary which can make it tough. I’ve been feeling healthy again and been back to training since Sochi so I was optimistic going into the sprint here today, on a course where I’ve been on the podium in the past,” commented Newell.

“In the qualification I didn’t go super fast which was surprising but coming back from sickness sometimes that can be the case. In the heats I was ready to go but just out of the double pole lanes I ran into some trouble. Everyone tries to get a fast start on this course so we were all trying to hold our ground. When we started skiing I got tangled with Nikita [Kriukov] breaking a pole and while trying to avoid him managed to bump into the Norwegian next to me and popped a ski off.

“So it was kind of a double-wammy. It’s really frustrating when stuff like that happens especially toward the end of the season when we’re fighting for world cup points. So I had to retrieve my missing ski and finish off the heat. Looking ahead I’m excited to get some classic sprinting in. It’s been a while since we’ve had any classic world cups and Drammen is always a fun one,” added Newell.

Qualifications here
Results here.