February 19, 2017 (Otepaa, EST) – The USA’s Simi Hamilton finished a solid 8th in the men’s 1.6km Sprint F while Canada’s Alex Harvey was 15th as Johannes Klaebo, 20, of Norway finally secured his first World Cup victory and is now just 20 points behind series leader Federico Pellegrino (Ita). Finn Hagen Krogh (NOR) finished second at 0.60 behind with Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov, the 2017 Tour de Ski winner, in third at 1.00 back.

“I felt strong today but it was not easy to win,” said Klaebo. “It is very cool to cross the finish line in 1st place. I tried to be first on the big climb and carry on the speed to the stadium. I felt very good energy today and I hope to keep it until the World Champs.”

Hamilton had a strong quarterfinal, skiing with the leaders the entire distance then putting down a tactical move in the final stretch to finish second.

“It was a good day for me for sure. We’ve never raced on this course layout here before, so knowing how it would race and how to ski it was a bit of an unknown. I thought I skied my quarter final tactically really well, and executed my game plan with confidence. I didn’t want to be leading coming down the long downhill to the stadium, but I put myself into a great spot before that descent and was able to finish strong, holding on for a pretty decisive 2nd in that heat.

In his semifinal, Hamilton ran fourth most of the way before putting on a strong finish sprint but was just out-lunged at the line to miss finals by just .04.

“In the semi, I think I burnt a little too much gas trying to ski in the deep snow on the first climb, and my legs were definitely feeling quite heavy for the rest of that race. Still, I’m really happy with the day, mostly because I think it’s a good indication of where my fitness is as we head into World Champs. My skis were rockets all day and our service team did an incredible job with giving us amazing boards, especially since it was tricky waxing conditions with the wet, sloppy snow,” said Hamilton.

Harvey had a tough quarter-final with the World Cup leader, Italian Federico Pellegrino and France’s Lucas Chanavat seeming to be the strongest opposition. It was Pellegrino and Andrew Young of Great Britain that contested the lead for most of the race, with Harvey skiing just behind in 3rd and 4th for much of the race. Chanavat fell out of contention on the last hill and as they approached the stadium, Harvey made a slick move on the inside to pull into 3rd.

On the final stretch Harvey gave it all he had but “ran out of real estate” finishing 3rd behind Young by 4/100ths of a second, and missing out on a “Lucky Loser” trip to the semis.

We also caught up with Andy Newell for his take on the day.

“My training break in Valadalen was great. Maybe a little too good because the skiing was so perfect it was hard to stay inside the hotel room. But I got in a lot of solid training and some tough interval sessions to get ready for Worlds.

“I’m feeling healthy and strong going into this weekend and into Worlds so I can’t complain. I wish today would have gone better because its always great practice to race as many rounds as you can leading into the championships, but in general I’m in a pretty good place leading into Lahti.

“Qualifying felt decent, like I said the skiing in Valadalen was a little too good, so I think my legs are still recovering a little bit from last week ha-ha, I was missing a little bit of that pop on the steep climb. That was a decisive part of the heats as well so if I was a little stronger there it would have been much better day. I’m not too worried about it though we have a few days to rest up before the sprint in Lahti.

“Positioning in my heat was tricky, It’s always hard to pass in skate sprinting so I should have positioned myself better before the last S turns. Not a great day but I’m ready to rock for Lahti,” commented Newell.

Results here.