March 09, 2013 (Lahti, Finland) – It was a good day at the office for Sweden’s Emil Joensson as he locked up the men’s Sprint Cup title taking the 1.55km FR sprint final over Ole Vigen Hattestad (NOR) in second with fellow Norge Finn Haagen Krogh taking the bronze. Leading the North Americans was Canada’s Len Valjas with a strong eighth-place finish advancing to the semi finals as a Lucky Loser.

The 24-year-old Torontonian qualified sixth and sprinted to third place in his quarter-final heat where he lunged for a photo-finish to secure a lucky loser spot in the semis. But Valjas seemed to run out of gas skiing near the back in his semi, yet he came on strong again at the end to finish 4th in the heat and 8th on the day. Fans will remember Valjas making massive headlines as a rookie last year earning three consecutive podiums as the WCup season ended.

“I felt really good today and feel really rested and healthy which is great considering I had all those days off at Worlds. The sickness is behind me and it was great today,” said Valjas now sixth overall in the World Cup sprint rankings [won by Joensson today]. “It was a goal of mine to be up there in the sprint rankings. I want to be a consistent sprinter and this is proof of that. I’m not far out of the top-three either so I just need to keep going out and getting the job done.”

Joining Valjas in the heats was American Andy Newell who qualified 16th but was not able to capture his recent good form and was eliminated in his quarter final ending up 27th.

“I don’t have a lot to say about today. I felt good and I think it could have been a lot better result but I just could get it done in the quarterfinal,” confided Newell to Trax post-race. “I didn’t have a great start out of the gate so I was stuck in the back for most of the heat. I worked my way up a little bit but got pinched on the inside on the last uphill corner and came into the stadium at the back.

“Previewing the course I thought there was going to be a lot more drafting and a lot more slingshots going on but it turned out to be a very hard course to pass on. Looking back I should have been much more aggressive to move up early on in the heat. Now I’m really motivated to make the finals in the next two sprints and finish the season strong,” added the Shaftsbury, VT skier.

Also racing today but not advancing to the heats were Canadians Jesse Cockney in 50th, Alex Harvey in 56th, Graeme Killick in 74th and Michael Somppi finishing in 77th. For the USA Simi Hamilton was 58th, Torin Koos was 73rd, and Dakota Blackhorse-Von-Jess was 81st.

We caught up with Canada’s Cockney for his take on the Lahti course and his race today. “The conditions and the course were pretty similar to what we have in Canmore most of the time. It felt pretty comfortable to be in such a similar place as Canmore. We’ve been in Lahti for the past week doing short intensities on the sprint course to get ready for today’s race and I really feel like it made a big difference in knowing how it would ski and and how it would feel.

“My body just wasn’t up the speed it needed to be in for the tight window of top 30 today. Next up is tomorrows 15km Classic and then flying to Oslo tomorrow night for Drammen’s city sprint. My goal for this trip was to make the heats again and compete for another top 12,” said Cockney

Qualifications HERE
Final results HERE.