January 13, 2013 (Liberec, CZE) – Maiken Caspersen Falla delivered Team Sprint gold to Norway as she reeled in Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter in the finishing straight in an exciting finish to the women’s 6 x 850m FR race, with Sweden II grabbing third.

Norway's Fall wins over Sweden's Ingemarsdotter

Meanwhile American fans were on the edge of their proverbial seats as Sadie Bjornsen and Ida Sargent were in contention the whole race sitting in 3rd or 4th for most of the competition. On the final lap Bjornsen tagged Sargent in third but the Vermont skier was under seige. She held her own until the final 200m when all teams exploded and Sargent faltered ending up 7th.

“I felt really good for the first two legs and then my last leg we kind of botched the tag and almost missed the end of the tag zone,” Sargent told Trax post-race. “Norway and Sweden had a little gap and I tried to sprint to catch them to get the draft on the downhill but I think I went too hard and really flooded with lactic acid.  I had nothing left in the last few hundred meters and was doing everything I could just to stay on my feet and not fall over.”

The duo skied strong and smart until that point as each fended off all challenges holding on to their top spot until the end and as  Bjornsen points out, it’s a big improvement over their last outing together.

Sadie Bjornsen (USA) © Kris Dobie file photo

“We were confident in our abilities and  knew we could ski with the front group coming into the final as we’d been with the lead group in our semi until Ida broke her pole in the final exchange. The fact that we were able to ski in 3rd for 95% of the race is exciting! Ida and I came a lot closer to the top than we did in our last team sprint together (This same race in Milan last year, we finished 14th),” shared Bjornsen.

“I was extremely happy as this was much closer to our expectations. Our plan was simply to go when we could as in the final the pace is always higher. Yesterday we weren’t quite as happy, so today was a great way to finish the weekend on a positive note,” added the newly crowned US National Sprint FR champ.

For Canada’s Daria Gaiazova, 29, and Perianne Jones, 27, it was lesson in patience – the skiing was there but the luck wasn’t as Jones suffered a broken pole and they finished 11th just out of the running for the final by fractions of a second with the seventh fastest time.

Gaiazova © Rob Whitney file photo

“We were right where we wanted to be until another athlete stepped on Peri’s pole and pulled it out of her hand,” said Eric de Nys, coach, Canadian Cross-Country Ski Team. “We had coaches in that section, but they were at the bottom where many crashes were happening. A French coach also tried to hand her a pole but she missed it. It was just a series of bad luck.”

Jones dropped from fifth to ninth where she handed off to Gaiazova for her final rip around the skate-sprint track. Gaiazova catapulted the Canadians back into fifth but Jones ran out of gas in her anchor leg.

“We know we’re in good shape,” Gaiazova told Trax post-race. “It was just a bit of bad luck when someone stepped on her [Jones] pole as the bottom of an uphill and she lost the pole and her glove. I think we skied really well and after the race we reviewed ways to improve to get even faster.”

The teams will now make their way to France to recover and begin training for next weekend’s WCup in La Clusaz.

Full results HERE.
Results detail HERE.