November 26, 2010 (Kuusamo, Finland) – U.S. Ski Teamer Andy Newell yet again demonstrated today why he is among the world’s top sprinters turning in an fine showing of sixth place in a deep field. Along with Newell 22-year-old Canadian Alex Harvey also scored an impressive ninth place, marking a good start for the North Americans.

The Norwegian men and women grabbed the top spots in today’s classic sprint action and the second FIS World Cup race series in cold temperature in the single digits – here in this town above the Arctic Circle. This will mark the only time all Nordic sports we join together for racing prior to February’s Nordic World Championships.

Norway’s John Kristian Dahl and Marit Bjoergen took top honors in the men’s 1.4km and women’s 1.2km classic sprints on the hilly track on the Kilarata race course, where Newell turned in an wiz-bang performance to place fifth. Dahl sped to a time of 2:08.7 while Newell was 15.5s off the pace. Finnish crowds had plenty to celebrate with the skiing of bronze medalist Sami Jauhojaervi who trailed Dahl by 3.7 seconds.

Newell, who finished eighth in the qualifying round felt good and said he was recovering well between the heats, commenting, “I like this course a lot, it’s a tough one with two big hills for the men, since I know the course well I was pretty much able to choose my own track, but by the second heat the wheels were coming off a little bit and I couldn’t quite get in there enough. It’s a good race for me, but I can do better, and that’s what I want to do. I can do better next week in Dusseldorf.” Newell added that the cool temperatures made for tough racing.

Following the event Harvey told Skitrax that, ”..today was kind of a surprise for me. I wanted to qualify and overall it’s was an amazing day for me. I got good bonus seconds and some good experience. I feel good about today and I am fired up about tomorrow.” In fact, three additional Canadian men joined Harvey in making the top thirty cut, including Devon Kershaw finishing 17th, Len Valjas in 29th and Stefan Kuhn in 30th – a solid day for the maple leafs considering their lacklustre start in Gallivare, Sweden.

U.S. Ski Team head coach Chris Grover was pleased for Newell. “It is always quite an accomplishment to make the A Finals and a sixth place in a WC is a great thing. We have done almost no anaerobic training so far this year, so it is good to see that he can still ski very fast in a qualification round. I know he was not satisfied with his performance, but it is still a long season and we will make the necessary adjustments.”

Olympic hero, Bjoergen took top honors in the women’s competition winning the final in 2:06.5, over Slovenia’s Petra Majdic, a classic specialist. The top North American qualifier was Canadian Daria Gaiazova in 23rd and she ended up 24th. Following the race Gaiazova expressed her delight in her performance saying, “I was satisfied with 24th place in my first world cup race of the year. I am not in top form yet, so it was great to get into the heats today.”

The top U.S. women was Dartmouth senior Ida Sargent  who finished 33rd overall, while Kikkan Randall also failed to qualify in 42nd position. Canada’s Chandra Crawford was 45th.

Despite a strong showing and nearly qualifying in her first series of world cup races Sargent is confident she can do better. “I struggled to get going today during the qualifying so it was tough to be that close to the top 30, when I know I could have skied a lot better.”

Grover was also excited about Sargent’s performance. “To be so close to the qualification cut in her first WC sprint says that she’s truly a talent for the future. Just a bit more experience at this level is all she needs to be cracking the top 30. I hope she is happy with her effort, from my point of view she is off to a great start.”

Saturday will see day two of the action in Finland, with a 10km individual classic race for the men, and a 5km classic for the women. More than 60,000 fans are expected to be on hand for two more days of competition from this cherished racing locale.

Full results HERE.