February 16, 2008 (Liberec, Cze) – Norway’s emerging new star, Astrid Jacobsen, held off Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk by four-tenths of a second Saturday to win a not-quite-10km skate race after Jean Marc Gaillard of France won the men’s not-quite-15km.

The races were listed as men’s 15km and women’s 10km, but they were held on a 1.9km loop and – after four laps for the ladies, six for the men – came up short of the posted distance. Kowalczyk, who started a minute behind Jacobsen and was so close to victory, probably would have preferred another two kilometres of race course.

While there is snow on upper elevations in the Czech Republic, there is little snow at lower levels, and except for the mix of machine-made and snow trucked in from elsewhere it’s a largely brown landscape.

“That’s all the track they had,” said Canadian Coach Dave Wood. “The organizers said they were only doing four laps for women, six for the men. Then, last night they said they’d have another lap but today it was four times 1.9 Ks and six times 1.9, so I don’t know what happened to the other lap, but we didn’t get it.” Originally, the races were to have been pursuits – 30km for men, 15km for women – but the lack of snow forced a change in the lineup.

The men raced first and Gaillard took the lead midway through the race and kept pulling away slightly to win in 28:01.3. World Cup leader Lukas Bauer, the Czech favorite, finished second in 28:13.4. The next 12 skiers were within 59 seconds of the winner.

Canadian Devon Kershaw was 18th (29:11.0) with American Kris Freeman 26th (29:28.9). Canadian George Grey was 45th in the field of 78 with teammate Alex Harvey 49th and American Garrott Kuzzy and Leif Zimmermann 59th and 60th, respectively.

In the women’s race, Jacobsen’s winning time was 20:54.6 with Kowalzyk runner-up in 20:55.0. Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla was third while World Cup leader Virpi Kuitunen of Finland finished 38th.

Canadian Sara Renner finished 28th in the field of 66 with a 22:04.1 clocking while Alaskan Kikkan Randall was 45th and Madeleine Williams, also from Canada, in 52nd.

“Devon’s really consistent now,” Wood said. “He’s right around 15 all the time, sometimes a little faster, sometimes a little back, but always in there. That’s a big change from a year ago when he was okay before Christmas but into the second half of the season he started to struggle. He’s stronger now and that’s part of it.”

“The conditions are brutal here right now and I can’t believe they were even able to pull the track together so I have to commend the organizing committee for that,” said Kershaw. “It doesn’t really affect me though. The conditions are the same for everyone and I just go out and race.”

As for Freeman on the comeback trail U.S. Coach Pete Vordenberg said, “”Kris is still coming back after getting sick before Christmas and losing a lot of his conditioning. This was probably his best skate race of the season and that’s good. He skied a strong race, and skied hard, but you can see he’s clearly missing the gearing of the guys who are winning. He’s strong and smooth, but they have another whole gear he doesn’t have yet. We’ve got a lot of season left, so I expect him to keep improving.”

The races continue Sunday with classic technique team sprints before the World Cup schedule leads back to Svandinavia.


Results

Women

1. Astrid Jacobsen (Nor) 20:54.6
2. Justyna Kowalczyk (Pol) 20:55.0
3. Charlotte Kalla (Swe) 21:01.6
4. Evi Sachenbacher Stehle (Ger) 21:02.0
5. Valentina Shevchenko (Ukr) 21:03.2
6. Arianna Follis (Ita) 21:04.6
7. Therese Johaug (Nor) 21:10.6
8. Evgenia Medvedeva (Rus) 21:11.8
9. Marit Bjoergen (Nor) 21:15.6
10. Claudia Nystad (Ger) 21:18.5
11. Kristin Stoermer Steira (Nor) 21:23.7
12. Marthe Kristoffersen (Nor) 21:28.3
13. Karine Laurent Philippot (Fra) 21:35.5
14. Antonella Confortola (Ita) 21:35.8
15. Olga Rotcheva (Rus) 21:36.4
16. Anna Hansson (Swe) 21:37.4
17. Riitta-Liisa Roponen (Fin) 21:41.5
18. Sabina ValbUSA (Ita) 21:41.9
19. Maryna Antsybor (Ukr) 21:43.3
20. Petra Majdic (Slo) 21:45.2
21. Katrin Zeller (Ger) 21:50.4
22. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (Fin) 21:53.0
23. Stefanie Boehler (Ger) 21:53.5
24. Alena Prochazkova (Svk) 21:53.8
25. Kornelia Marek (Pol) 21:54.4
26. Natalja Iljina (Rus) 22:00.2
27. Sylwia Jaskowiec (Pol) 22:01.9
28. Sara Renner (Can) 22:04.1
29. Silvana Bucher (Sui) 22:10.6
30. Ivana Janeckova (Cze) 22:12.8
31. Celia Bourgeois (Fra) 22:15.0
32. Natalia Korosteleva (Rus) 22:15.3
33. Pirjo Muranen (Fin) 22:16.4
34. Coraline Hugue (Fra) 22:17.1
35. Laurence Rochat (Sui) 22:18.2
36. Irina Terentjeva (Ltu) 22:20.8
37. Larisa Kurkina (Rus) 22:28.1
38. Virpi Kuitunen (Fin) 22:31.4
39. Maria Rydqvist (Swe) 22:31.5
40. Ioulia Tchekaleva (Rus) 22:34.2
41. Riikka Sarasoja (Fin) 22:34.6
42. Zoya Obiukh (Ukr) 22:37.2
42. Sofia Bleckur (Swe) 22:37.2
44. Alena Sannikova (Blr) 22:37.8
45. Helena Erbenova (Cze) 22:39.1
46. Tatyana Shedenko (Kaz) 22:42.7
46. Kikkan Randall (USA) 22:42.7
48. Magda Genuin (Ita) 22:43.8
49. Marina Piller (Ita) 22:44.5
50. Barbara Jezersek (Slo) 22:48.3
50. Masako Ishida (Jpn) 22:48.3
52. Madeleine Williams (Can) 22:48.6
53. Katerina Smutna (Aut) 22:50.0
54. Tatjana Mannima (Est) 22:52.8
55. Marina Matrosova (Kaz) 22:57.3
55. Tatjana Roshina (Kaz) 22:57.3
57. Eliska Hajkova (Cze) 22:58.8
58. Klara Moravcova (Cze) 23:03.6
59. Aurore Cuinet (Fra) 23:05.2
60. Anouk Faivre Picon (Fra) 23:14.2
61. Madoka Natsumi (Jpn) 23:14.5
62. Kaija Udras (Est) 23:28.5
63. Eva Skalnikova (Cze) 23:35.3
64. Yekaterina Semyonovyhk (Kaz) 23:42.3
65. Aimee Watson (Aus) 24:15.5
66. Laura Rohtla (Est) 24:29.0

Men

1. Jean Marc Gaillard (Fra) 28:01.3
2. Lukas Bauer (Cze) 28:13.4
3. Christian Hoffmann (Aut) 28:23.1
4. Pietro Piller Cottrer (Ita) 28:27.9
5. Anders Soedergren (Swe) 28:29.6
6. Dario Cologna (Sui) 28:34.2
7. Emmanuel Jonnier (Fra) 28:37.2
8. Vincent Vittoz (Fra) 28:45.3
9. Petter Northug Jr. (Nor) 28:52.5
10. Valerio Checchi (Ita) 28:55.6
11. Martin Koukal (Cze) 28:58.9
12. Rene Sommerfeldt (Ger) 28:59.6
13. Martin Jaks (Cze) 28:59.9
14. Toni Livers (Sui) 29:03.3
15. Martin Bajcicak (Svk) 29:04.4
16. Teemu Kattilakoski (Fin) 29:06.1
17. Johan Olsson (Swe) 29:09.2
18. Devon Kershaw (Can) 29:11.0
19. Sami Jauhojaervi (Fin) 29:12.5
20. Ville Nousiainen (Fin) 29:15.2
21. Sergei Dolidovich (Blr) 29:15.4
22. Morten Eilifsen (Nor) 29:17.2
23. Curdin Perl (Sui) 29:22.0
24. Maurice Manificat (Fra) 29:23.1
25. Mathias Fredriksson (Swe) 29:26.5
26. Kris Freeman (USA) 29:28.9
27. Marcus Hellner (Swe) 29:32.0
28. Remo Fischer (Sui) 29:33.8
29. Simen Oestensen (Nor) 29:35.7
30. Florian Kostner (Ita) 29:42.6
30. Tobias Angerer (Ger) 29:42.6
32. Jaak Mae (Est) 29:45.5
33. Alexander Legkov (Rus) 29:46.5
34. Giorgio Di Centa (Ita) 29:49.7
35. Jussi Simula (Fin) 29:50.8
36. Vassili Rotchev (Rus) 29:51.2
37. Martin Johnsrud Sundby (Nor) 29:55.0
38. Ales Razym (Cze) 29:56.5
39. Ilia Chernousov (Rus) 29:58.3
40. Robin Duvillard (Fra) 30:01.5
41. Michal Malak (Svk) 30:03.2
42. Jiri Magal (Cze) 30:03.5
43. Jens Filbrich (Ger) 30:04.8
44. Axel Teichmann (Ger) 30:05.0
45. George Grey (Can) 30:09.0
46. Geir Ludvig Aasen Ouren (Nor) 30:12.6
47. Lars Berger (Nor) 30:17.2
48. Andrey Parfenov (Rus) 30:22.4
49. Alex Harvey (Can) 30:24.1
50. Sergey Cherepanov (Kaz) 30:27.4
51. Tord Asle Gjerdalen (Nor) 30:28.2
52. Maxim Vylegzhanin (Rus) 30:29.8
53. Milan Sperl (Cze) 30:31.8
54. Fredrik Karlsson (Swe) 30:32.1
55. Aivar Rehemaa (Est) 30:38.2
56. Eugeni Dementiev (Rus) 30:38.9
57. Maxim Odnodvortsev (Kaz) 30:41.5
58. Petr Novak (Cze) 30:41.8
59. Garrott Kuzzy (USA) 30:43.6
60. Leif Orin Zimmermann (USA) 30:45.6
61. DUSAn Kozisek (Cze) 30:47.2
62. Ben Sim (Aus) 30:51.4
63. Olexandr Putsko (Ukr) 30:53.0
64. Fabio Santus (Ita) 30:55.0
65. Vaclav Kupilik (Cze) 30:58.3
66. Gion Andrea Bundi (Sui) 30:59.8
67. Shunsuke Komamura (Jpn) 31:07.2
68. Mariusz Michalek (Pol) 31:16.5
69. Alexey Poltaranin (Kaz) 31:25.7
70. Jan Rykr (Cze) 31:25.8
71. Alexander Lasutkin (Blr) 31:29.7
72. Priit Narusk (Est) 31:30.6
73. Anti Saarepuu (Est) 31:45.1
74. Roman Leybyuk (Ukr) 32:16.6
75. Aleksei Novoselski (Ltu) 32:18.3
76. Jonas Thor Olsen (Dan) 32:38.5