February 10, 2008 (Otepaeae, Estonia) – Canada’s Devon Kershaw of battled his way into eighth place Sunday in a rainy World Cup classic technique sprint while Canadian Olympic champ Chandra Crawford was 12th in her race. Eldar Roenning led Norwegians into the top three places in the men’s sprint. He was followed onto the podium by Johan Kristian Dahl and Ola Vigen Hattestad. The race also kept alive the men’s streak of having a different winner in each sprint – nine races, nine different winners.

Kershaw qualified 17th over the 1.2km course, but came through the quarterfinal round as second in his heat, four-tenths of a second behind Dahl. However, he took a spill in his semifinal heat and couldn’t move into the six-man final round. In the B Final, or small final, Kershaw was runner-up to German Axel Teichmann.

American Andy Newell qualified 14th and led much of his quarterfinal heat before being passed in the last 150 metres. He finished 28th. Torin Koos of the U.S. Ski Team was 32nd with Canadian Phil Widmer 42nd, Drew Goldsack 44th and American Chris Cook 45th, and Canadian Alex Harvey was 53rd.

Slovenian Petra Majdic edged sprint world champion Astrid Jacobsen of Norway for the women’s victory with World Cup leader Virpi Kuitunen third. Alaskan Kikkan Randall was 25th with Laura Valaas of the U.S. 45th, Canadian Sarah Daitch 50th and teammate Madeleine Williams 53rd.

Crawford and Majdic moved out of their quarterfinal heat but Crawford couldn’t move out of the semifinal.

Full results here.