February 28, 2008 (Mals, Italy) – Canada’s Alex Harvey finished fourth in Wednesday’s 20km freestyle mass start race at the 2008 Nordic Junior/U23 Worlds. Philipp Marschall of Germany came in first, stopping the clock at 48:29.6. He was followed by Russian Petr Sedov at 48:30.1 and Kazakh Andrey Gridin 48:30.1 in a photo finish. Harvey finished 11.7 back from Marschall. We caught up with Harvey to ask him about the race.

Tell us about the race – did your left leg bother you?
AH: My leg has been causing me problems since the beginning of the season. It won’t stop until I go for surgery. During Wednesday’s race I felt really good. It was easy to stay with the leaders. I was skiing “smooth” and technically well. At the 18km mark, there were four of us at the front. At the moment when I wanted to push ahead, my [left] leg couldn’t do anything. I then lost the three other leaders at some 500 metres from the finish. I am very unsatisfied by my fourth place finish. All through the race I had to hold myself back in order to keep my leg in good shape. But this strategy didn’t give me much in the end.

Harvey told Radio Canada that until his leg problems arose he felt confident of passing Marschall. Harvey, who won 10km classic silver on Monday, has one more shot at the podium. Friday sees the 4 X 5km relays where Harvey expects to ski the second spot in the classic relay. His leg circulation problems have not yet manifested themselves in shorter distance races, which bodes well for the 19-year-old from the Quebec City area. Fred Touchette who finished 14th (1:05.2 back) in Wednesday’s 20km race, is also considered podium material.

Harvey was originally scheduled for surgery last month for the circulation problem in his left leg, but this was postponed. Read more here.