January 14, 2017 (Toblach, Italy) – The USA’s Simi Hamilton was a mere boot tip away from victory as he delivered a superb sprint performance to claim second in the men’s 1.3km freestyle Sprint at Toblach, Italy, battling to a photo-finish with Norway’s Sindre Bjoernestad Skar who claimed his first World Cup win.

Hamilton, who won his first stage World Cup in 2014 in Lenzerheide, SUI, at the Tour de Ski, was just three hundredths of a second away from victory. In third place was Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, earning his third podium of the season.

“I’m psyched with the day for sure, though I sure wish I could have moved up one step on the podium from last year. I felt great going into my quarter final. I knew that my body was in good form and my skis were smoking fast after my qualification, so I wanted to ski my quarter smart and in control,” commented Hamilton.

“Our heat was pretty scrappy the entire race, but I made a good move going in to the corner before the final climb. Getting into a good position before the final long downhill into the turn before the finish stretch is really key on this course, so feeling good and being aggressive on that final climb was probably my best asset I had going for me all day today.

“Our semi was also very tight, and I knew it had been a pretty fast pace from the start, so even though I couldn’t get through much traffic in the final 500 meters, I focused on crossing the line in the best position I possibly could hoping that my third place time would be good enough for a lucky loser spot. Fortunately, it was,” he explained.

Fellow American, Andy Newell, who qualified in sixth one spot behind Hamilton, was fourth in his opening heat. He held onto a lucky loser spot for a while but was ultimately bumped and finished 13th.

Canada’s Alex Harvey was 17th and Len Valjas was 20th. The result bumped Harvey one spot up the overall World Cup standings into fourth.

“It was pretty good today. I think that was my best qualifier in two years so I was a bit surprised,” said Harvey, who was only going to start the team sprint on Sunday with Valjas. “It was such an easy trip to come down to Toblach. I just felt if I’m doing race prep I might as well put a bib on and see what happens. I felt a lot of speed today and was quite happy.”

The men’s final was hotly contested, with Hamilton hanging behind the leaders until late in the race when he made a strategic move to take the lead. He set the pace into the finish, but wasn’t in a good stride position at the line as Skar just barely edged him out for the win.

“In the final, I basically tried to ski as efficiently as I could for the first 2/3 of the race. On this course the key is skiing the last climb really well, and all day I was making a good, decisive move right before that to move from the back of the pack to the front. So I wanted to use the same tactics that had worked for me all day,” said Hamilton.

“I felt really good coming off the top of that hill, especially knowing that I was probably going to get a good sling shot off of Pellegrino on the long turn before the finish stretch (which was exactly what he did to me last year). That worked really well, and I had the best position possible going into the finish lanes, but I stumbled a tiny bit at the start of the very soft finish stretch, and it took me a second to regain my composure.

“I knew Sindre was coming in hot on my left as we neared the finish, and I just focused on going through the motions and setting myself up for a good lunge. It came down to the wire and he had just a little bit of a better lunge than I did to nip me by a couple centimeters at the line, but I’m still really psyched with how the day played out.

“Our techs did an outstanding job with giving us amazing boards all day, and it was definitely a team effort. It’s pretty unbelievable to see 5 of us in the top-13…

“I think that is historical and it’s a testament to the momentum that this collective team has right now. I’m psyched for tomorrow, but also for another skate sprint coming up in Falun, Sweden in two weeks and I’m really looking forward to a great training period before World Champs,” he concluded.

Sunday will showcase a team sprint and Hamilton will team up with Newell, while Harvey and Valjas will take on the world for Canada.

Results here.