January 18, 2009 (Whistler, BC) – It was an historic day for both Canadian and American sprint teams on Sunday at Whistler Olympic Park. The Canadian sprint pairing of George Grey and Alex Harvey recorded a first ever podium finish in the World Cup Team sprint placing third just 0.6 seconds out of first place. In the women’s sprint the USA duo of Liz Stephen and Kikkan Randall were 4th – the best ever finish for the Americans as well.

In the men’s 1.6km team sprint the Swedish team of Robin Bryntesson and Emil Joensson put the hammer down in the final two laps breaking open the pedestrian-paced men’s final. Five teams came into the stadium together including the Canadian team but a crash in the final corner by 30km Pursuit winner, Pietro Piller Cottrer, took team Italian II out of contention guaranteeing Grey and Harvey at least 4th place.

Harvey charged home all the way to the finish line to take 3rd, just 0.3 seconds behind the Italian 1 team, brothers Fabio and Renato Pasini. The US team of Torin Koos and Andy Newell – fourth in the last WC team sprint before Christmas – settled for 8th, followed by the Canadian III team of Brent McMurty and Phil Widmer.

“Once you start breaking into the top-10 anything is possible,” said Grey. “I have been at this a long time and it is just so great to finally break through.”

“This means we can do it at a World Cup and we can do it at the Olympics,” said Harvey, of St-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que. “I was in my bubble coming into the stadium and couldn’t hear anything. I just told myself to go and I fought as hard as I could. This is so awesome.”

“I am so happy for the guys. It is days like these when they get on the podium that are so special and you never forget them,” said Dave Wood, team leader, National Ski Team. “In 2002 we had one medal, in 2006 we had two and now we have a number of athletes that have potential to win and that is really exciting. It is also very important so the pressure isn’t all on one person.”

In the women’s 1.3km team sprint Italy’s Magda Genuin and Arianna Follis easily won by 9.9 seconds over the second-placed German team of Nicole Fessel, and Stefanie Boehler. In third just ahead of a hard-charging Randall was the Swedish pairing of Lina Andersson and Anna Olsson. Stephen and Randall missed the podium by just 0.9 seconds. Stephen known for her distance skiing was a surprise choice to many pundits as a sprint partner with Randall, but she did a brilliant job of keeping the US in contention throughout the semi finals and finals. No other North American teams qualified for the team sprint finals.

“It was a really exciting race,” said Randall. “Not only was it a great finish but we were also very competitive. If I had another 20 meters I think we could have done even better.”

U.S. Cross Country Head Coach Peter Vordenberg said the pairs’ skiing “rescued” the weekend. “They qualified third, which was exactly what they needed, and managed to conserve enough energy to post an outstanding result,” Vordenberg commented. “It’s for sure the best result for the women ever.”

Full women’s results here.
Full men’s results pdf here.

Results (brief)

Men
1. Sweden (Bryntesson, Joensson) 19:44.1
2. Italy I (Pasini, Pasini) + 0.3
3. Canada I (Grey, Harvey) + 0.6
4. Russia II (Morilov, Petukhov) + 0.8
5. France II (Miranda, Darragon) + 1.9

8. United States (Koos, Newell) + 9.3
9. Canada III (McMurtry, Widmer) + 10.8

Women
1. Italy I (Genuin, Follis) 17:20.1
2. Germany (Fessel, Boehler) + 9.9
3. Sweden I (Andersson, Olsson) + 11.1
4. United States (Stephen, Randall) + 12.0
5. France I (Laurent Philippot, Barthelemy) + 12.5