February 01, 2014 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – The USA’s Rose Frankowski was the top North American in 26th in the U23 Women’s 7.5kmCL+7.5kmFR Skiathlon won by Norway’s Martine Ek Hagen won the gold medal, followed by her teammate Ragnhild Haga with Austria’s Stadlober in third.

Following Frankowski was teammate Annie Pokorny in 33rd with Canadians Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt in 37th and Cendrine Browne in 39th. American Mary Rose was 38th and Elizabeth Guiney was 41st.

Hagen took an early lead together with the Italian athletes Francesca Baudin, Lucia Scardoni, Debora Agreiter and Giulia Stürz. After changing skis Hagen was still at the front and kept the pressure on until the finish winning her second gold medal at these Championships. Haga soloed in for the silver as Stadlober attacked on the final hill and dropped Italy’s Debora Agreiter to claim the bronze.

We caught up with Frankowski for her take on the day. “The conditions were interesting because it snowed a lot a couple days ago and then it has been raining for the past 2 days. However even though it was really tricky waxing conditions my skis were great and I like slow conditions so having slow snow suited me.

“I had awesome kick and my skate skis were flying! Being able to kick up almost all the hills made the classic portion of the race really fun. Shout out to all the wax techs here who nailed it, in particular Justin Beckwith who worked with me!

“This was my first skiathalon so I was a bit worried about how the transition would go but I had no issues. I think I have done some of the best classic skiing of my life in the past two races and also learned a lot about the entire process of an event of this calibre. It was awesome racing in a US ski suit and on a team with some of the best U23 girls in the country. Overall this entire experience has been amazing, thanks to the US coaches, teammates and organizations like NNF that made it possible for me to travel here.”

For Pokorny it was a good day at the office as well.

“When we got to the venue this morning, the rain had already started and we knew that the conditions would be tricky again. Despite the rain, the course was in pretty good shape. The choice came down to zeroes for speed or klister for kick – I chose zeroes. Although I had to throw down some herring bone on the hills, I’m happy with that choice and was even more happy with the job the techs did on my skate skis. After the transition, I was able to work up four more places and a lot of that had to do with the speediness of those boards.

“I am happy with today. It came down to a sprint finish, and while I would have liked to be sprinting for a position higher up, it was my first time lunging for the line and crashing into the snow. I knew I had gone as hard as I could go, and there’s something really satisfying about that,” commented Pokorny.

Full results here.