Final sprint (l-r) Sweden's Joensson, Halfvarsson, Peterson © Nordic Focus

March 15, 2014 (Falun, Sweden) – A thrilling final saw three top Swedish sprinters explode in mad dash to the finish in the men’s 1.5km Sprint CL on home turf on day one in Falun as Teodor Peterson squeaked by teammate Emil Joensson in a photo finish for the win with Calle Halfvarsson taking third.

Final podium (l-r) Joensson 2nd, Peterson 1st, Halfvarsson 3rd © Nordic Focus

In the scramble behind Canada’s Alex Harvey, 25, who made the final as a Lucky Loser, raced to a stellar 4th as Sergey Ustiugov (RUS) was fifth and Norway’s Eirik Brandsdal finished 6th which meant his teammate Ola Vigen Hattestad, the Sprint Cup leader, secured the overall as Brandsdal needed to finish third or better in the final to win the globe. A rule infraction saw Hattestad “ranked as last” during his quarterfinal heat opening the door for Brandsdal.

Alex Harvey (CAN) © Nordic Focus

“I wanted to stay behind the pack for the first and second hill because I knew I was gong to be fast on the downhill,” said Harvey, who finished eighth overall in the World Cup sprint rankings. “If it was a little longer I would have caught them. I am very satisfied though with fourth today.

“My main objective this weekend is to have great results, and I would really like a podium,” added Harvey. “My shape is good, and I’m looking forward to the weekend.”

Andrew Newell (USA) © Nordic Focus

American Andy Newell, the only other North American to qualify to the heats, advanced to the semis as a Lucky Loser after placing 3rd in his quarter final. But his day ended when he finished 4th in his semi. Being the slower of the two heats Newell finished 8th overall whereas Harvey and Brandsdal, who were in the faster semi, both made the jump to the final as Lucky Losers.

“I felt pretty good all day, definitely starting to come back after the bad Sochi sickness set back and my energy is getting better and better. It was an exciting course because it was easy enough to pass and the finishing stretch was really fast but you could also get by people if you had to. In both my heats I felt great climbing and had plenty of energy to burn in the finish but maybe just didn’t have my top DP gear. I’ve been focusing a lot on skating this year so my double pole maybe isn’t as good as it should be. but I’m stoked to be feeling better in the sprints.

Quarter final action...(l-r) Halfvarsson, Harvey, Newell, Hellner, Richardsson and Poltoranin. © Nordic Focus

“It was a fun day of racing, the course skied really well and even though conditions have been warm they salted the entire course which made it pretty firm and fast – it will be great to come back and race the 2015 World Champs here next year.

“To see Kikkan take the globe again is awesome. To be able to do that once is an achievement and then to win the overall three years in a row is amazing. It really shows how much she is an all around sprinter these days and can be on the podium in any kind of course,” added Newell.

Sprint Cup final podium (l-r) Brandsdal 2nd, Hattestad 2nd, Wenzl 3rd © Nordic Focus

Peterson now leads the mini-tour heading into Saturday’s 30 km Skiathlon competition as Hattestad hung on by just 8 points to take his third overall Sprint World Cup title. In second place was Brandsdal and in third was Germany’s Josef Wenzl, the only German male skier to ever make an overall Sprint title podium.

Meanwhile the battle between Harvey and Sweden’s Halfvarsson continues as Halfvarsson has a 12-point lead over Harvey for fourth spot in the overall World Cup standings with the final two races to go this weekend.

Canada’s Devon Kershaw placed 40th and did not qualify for the heats while Ivan Babikov skied into 47th spot

Qualifications here.
Results here.
Sprint Cup standings here.
World Cup overall here.