March 27, 2014 – It’s fun to think back or have a few quiet moments to think about the what-ifs. What if Kikkan [Randall] skied the whole TdS, which she missed, as did others, and we were to do some number manipulations. Was 3rd overall in the World Cup, which she achieved last season, possible. There are 30 WC races counting the TdS and Kikkan missed eight (8) scoring chances by not doing the TdS. Using her WC points/race average and applying it those 8 races, she would have finished 4th. But, no skiers on the women’s side did the whole Tour last year or this year. What this tells you – besides the fact that I just spent a couple of hours going back and forth from 2014 to 2013 – is that the skiers who manage themselves the best on the World Cup have fewer misses.

Kikkan, definitely had a better year last year, 2013, then she did this year, 2014. Her WC scoring point average per race last year was 47 pts and she had five 1st places, while this year her WC point average/ race was 42 pts with just three 1st places.

I wrote last month that I think Kikkan came into the year already tired, and was hanging on throughout the season.

Also, I’m betting big bucks on the fact that she WILL ski next year! But, also better managed, especially during her training season!!

The Ladies to the North – Lets take a look at the ladies to the north as in these manipulations, it has become quite apparent that there’s more smoke than fire. Neither of the two leaders of the program are skiing enough WC races to be in, or stay in, racing shape in my opinion. Reviewing how many races they’re not doing – less then half the WC schedule – Dasha [Gaiazova] and Perianne [Jones] are going to have to do about a 100 more training hours/year and another 10-12 races if they ever expect to live up to their own opinions of themselves. The program in Canada needs to reel in these two ladies and get them on track – if there’s any resistance then it’s best to cut them off, as they will affect the younger ladies coming along. After having said all that – they are talented, but the work has to be done.

Petter Northug – this is the second time in the last four years that he has gone off on his own – not signing on with National Team program in the Spring. Someone is waving big dollars in his face to get him to do it. Isn’t it ironic that this is also the second time that following this path that he wasn’t able to finish the season. I’ll bet it comes down to the same old thing – these people who are spending the money to support him also want lots of his time and therefore he compromises his recovery efforts. Money can be good if you don’t lose sight your goals.

Interesting – 12 out of 14 US Olympic skiers are at their Super Series/Nationals in Anchorage, Alaska – all picking up their own expenses. That’s the minus – the plus is capitalizing on all the hype, connecting with all the domestic skiers, having a high caliber set of competitions and passing on their points. Competitions have been fierce so far and the surprise is the winter-like conditions.

Skiathlon – I like this race and feel it should be lengthened for the women to 10km per discipline or should it be dumped for a mixed relay – a man and a women skiing 5km for each discipline. As a race, the skiathlon, done at the other levels of competition is a big ZERO! It takes a huge set up physically, lots of manpower and requires a lot of time for the wax technicians that aren’t in such big numbers at the lower levels of racing to get at least two pairs of skis per racer set up. I think the answer is obvious and should be fun experience for the racers.

Cheating and Interference – There is way too much skating going on in the classic races, especially the sprint races. Drammen’s sprint race was loaded with this, as skiers were trying to double-pole the whole course. It was very apparent on one of the straight stretches as I was watching on my computer.

Interference and leaving lanes in the final meters of races at the Olympics was also very apparent. Letters of reprimand are laughable – there is too much money at stake. The rules are clear and the action should be – DISQUALIFICATION – no questions.

One example was a interferance caused by Norway’s Astrid Jacobson to Sophie Caldwell (USA) on the back side of the course which was visible from the helicopter footage. With slow motion and stop action it would be easy to discern the level of the interference and the penalty needed to help correct this.

This is just another sport that needs video replay now that the dollars are getting sizable – not 2-3 years down the road – like the FIS is quite capable of doing. It is time to curb these misdeeds.

Talk To You Soon!

March 25, 2014 (Anchorage, Alaska) – Alaska Pacific University (APU) dominated the inaugural 4 x 5km Mixed Relay on first day of racing at the 2014 U.S. National Championships establishing itself as the strongest Nordic club in the country.

The APU-1 team of all stars including Reese Hanneman, Sadie Bjornsen, Erik Bjornsen and Kikkan Randall took the crown by a 45.6-second margin over a strong Stratton Mountain School that included Andy Newell, Sophie Caldwell, Simi Hamilton and Jessie Diggins.

“Alaska is delivering big time right now,” said Randall, the four-time Olympian from Anchorage who served as APU’s anchor.

Not only did Alaska see its most prestigious club crush the competition, but it also witnessed history on a bright, beautiful evening at Kincaid Park. Never before had the U.S. National Championships host a mixed-gender, mixed-technique relay.

The men started the relay with two classic legs of a 3.3-kilometer loop. They tagged off to the women, who also raced that loop twice. Then came the men, who switched techniques and raced two freestyle legs of a 2.5-kilometer loop. The women finished their two freestyle laps in the stadium.

“This worked out perfectly,” said APU Nordic Ski Center director Erik Flora. “It was a chance to show off your club pride.”

It was also a chance for Hanneman, a 24-year-old skier from Fairbanks, to show his fellow Americans that he’s on the verge of becoming the next big thing in U.S. skiing.

Hanneman established a 10-second lead over sprint sensation Andy Newell after completing the first lap of the classic loop. The wide gap didn’t end there and by the time he tagged Sadie Bjornsen to end the classical portion, he had built APU’s lead to about 12 seconds.

“Attacking two kilometers into a six-kilometer race is a really hard distance to start out with,” Hanneman told Trax. “You basically have to be sprinting – and that’s a long time to be sprinting.”

At first Hanneman wanted to ski with the pack until the second lap. But at the bottom of the first big climb, he found a burst of energy and accelerated past everybody. In what seemed like a split second, he committed to taking a lead that was never relinquished.

“If you don’t commit, it doesn’t work,” Hanneman added.

Bjornsen said she and Hanneman talked strategy before the race. She asked him, “So what should we do?” He didn’t really have a set game plan, so she gave him her two cents.

“I told him, ‘You should go hard from the start,’ ” she shared. “That’s exactly what he did. He set the tone from the beginning and we just followed suit.”

His fast and furious start allowed Bjornsen, her brother Erik, and Randall to put it on cruise control all the way to the end and finish in 55 minutes, 51 seconds. Stratton Mountain-1 finished second in 56:37 and APU-2 – Lex Treinen, Rosie Brennan, David Norris, Holly Brooks – placed third in 57:09.

The Bjornsens have been skiing together for 20 years. Sadie told us this was the first time she had ever skied in a relay race with her younger brother.

“That was pretty neat,” commented Bjornsen. “I didn’t realize it until I was tagging him and I said to myself, ‘Oh, that’s kinda cool.'” She would like to see the mixed-gender relay race someday become an event on the World Cup circuit. “It’s more than just a relay,” she added. “It incorporates a lot of diversity.”

The U.S. National Championships concludes on March 28 on the foothills of the Chugach Mountains starting with the women’s 30-K classic and wraps up with the men’s 50-K classic.

The double podium finish for APU pays tribute to Erik Flora’s renowned program at Alaska Pacific University – read more here.

Live timing results w/Splits here.

March 24, 2014 (Lillehammer, Norway) – As previously reported, bad weather caused officials to cancel the 2014 Norwegian Birkenbeiner (Birkebeinerrennet), a 54km Worldloppet event scheduled for Saturday, March 15 from Rena to Lillehammer. Race officials made the call early on Saturday morning, citing wind speeds of 25 metres per second on parts of the trail reported NRK.

There was one previous cancellation due to high winds – in 2007. Apart from that, the Birkenbeiner has been run continuously since 1932, missing only the years of German occupation during World War II (1941-45). Women have apparently been competing in the Birkenbeiner since 1976.

Many of the 17,000 skiers who had registered for the 2014 Birkenbeiner apparently took this turn of events in good stride. The irony was that both the start and finish of the Birkenbeiner had blue skies and calm winds, but the trail in between was a different store.

“There wasn’t a cloud in the skies. It looked perfect. Then we got the news; it was cancelled because of the wind,” explains Francois Tornier in a short video clip (see below). “We understand; it could be dangerous. We’ll be back next year.”

Other skiers were less hospitable about the 2014 cancellation and subsequent decision to offer no refunds, setting out on the trail regardless reports Wikipedia. Thousands of them apparently made it through to Lillehammer and were critical of the decision to cancel. This was similar to what happened in 2007.

The Birkebeiner renders homage to loyalists who skied the trail carrying the infant Håkon Håkonsson – an heir to the Norwegian throne – to safety in 1206. All participants today carry a backpack weighing at least 3.5 kg, symbolizing the weight of the then-one-year-old Håkonsson. The Norwegian Birkenbeiner is the inspiration for the American Birkenbeiner, held in Wisconsin, and the Canadian Birkenbeiner held near Edmonton, AB. The Norwegian word “Birkenbeiner” seems to loosely translate as “birch gaiters.”

NRK report (in Norwegian) here.
Previous SkiTrax report here.
Wikipedia here.

March 23, 2014 (Anchorage, Alaska) – APU’s Reese Hanneman took home the men’s 1.4km CL Sprint victory and series title at the SuperTour Finals as a protest saw the initial winner, veteran Andy Newell (Stratton), relegated to 6th despite being first across the line.

Grabbing an early lead and hanging onto it until the finish line was Hanneman’s strategy heading into the final day of the SuperTour Finals at Kincaid Park. That strategy served him well in contesting for the win but Newell but changed lanes in the final stretch making contact with Hanneman resulting in the protest and ultimate ruling.

The scenario was anything but how Hanneman had envisioned beating the three-time Olympian and perennial top-ten World Cup finisher. “Andy’s one of the fastest guys in the world and I was just trying to get as big of an advantage as I could going into the final climb,” Hanneman said.

Newell had Hanneman on his left-hand side when the two crested Elliot’s Climb and headed into the final 100 meters. Newell said he thought he had enough room to pass the 24-year-old Hanneman by switching two lanes to his left. But in doing so, the Vermont skier made contact with Hanneman’s skis.

“They say you’re not supposed to ski over anyone’s skis in sprint racing,” Newell said, “but that stuff happens.”

Newell crossed the finish line first, but Hanneman said his coaches at Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center protested the victory. After race officials printed Newell’s 0.7-second win over Hanneman on the results board, it was later taken down and announced that Hanneman finished first and Newell was bumped to sixth.

“We were side by side and he just skated right across my skis,” Hanneman said. “He went right between my tips and my boots.”

Hanneman, who won the classic sprint at the U.S. Cross Country Championships in Utah this past January, said he wasn’t sure why Newell decided to change lanes along that final push adding that the move wasn’t necessary in order for Newell to win.

“He cut me off pretty bad,” he said. “Super blatant. A lot of contact.”

But according to Newell, 30, his lane change wasn’t at all blatant adding that he barely touched the tips of Hanneman’s skis. “I thought I had gapped Reese enough to definitely change lanes,” explained Newell.

“I saw the video and thought it was a clean crossover. I changed tracks and I didn’t even go into the track in front of him. I actually went two over so I wouldn’t cut him off,” he added. “It wasn’t intentional – I didn’t even know he was there.”

Regardless, the last-minute lane change cost Newell $750 in prize money and helped out Hanneman, who said he plans to use his winnings to pay off some travel debts. “I have to pay for that trip to the World Cup,” he said.

Hanneman finished with a winning time of 3 minutes, 25 seconds, which was 0.7 seconds slower than Newell before the relegation was announced. Benjamin Saxton (3:29) finished second, Tyler Kornfield (3:31) placed third, Patrick O’Brien (3:35) grabbed fourth, and Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (3:44) nabbed fifth.

Newell, a nine-year member of the U.S. Ski Team, didn’t agree with the decision, but didn’t necessarily seem all that concerned about it either.

“On the World Cup they would definitely let that slide,” he said. “It’s not a big deal. We’re just here having fun. The result doesn’t matter to me.”

Qualifications here.
Results brackets here.

March 23, 2014 (Oslo, Norway) – Canada’s Rosanna Crawford, 25, nailed the performance of her life with a career-best, first-ever top-10 in the IBU women’s 12.5km mass start race, the final World Cup of the season in Oslo, Norway. The Canmore, Alta. native missed just one shot in four rounds of shooting finishing 36.3s behind winner Anastasiya Kuzmina (SVK) who suffered four penalties.

“It’s been a long season and now almost three months in Europe  so I’m very happy to end the season on a positive note. A new personal best is now a great place to set my goals for next season,” said Crawford, who sprained her left thumb in yesterday’s pursuit race after she collided with a Russian coach and landed on her back and rifle. “I wasn’t feeling 100 per cent so shooting was the key today, but right now I can’t wait to get home and relax, recover, see my family and my dog!”

US Biathlon’s Susan Dunklee finished 18th suffering six penalties at 1:51.4 behind the winner. “In the mass start, I struggled with the shooting and had one particularly poor standing stage,” said Dunklee. “But, I finished with a clean stage and strong fight on the last loop. I had a good run of things at the end of the season and will be headed into the summer with a lot of good motivation.”

Teja Gregorin (SLO) placed second with two penalties at 3.8s back while Marie Dorin Habert (FRA) was third with three penalties at 8.3s behind Kuzamina who claimed her second victory in row after winning yesterday’s pursuit competition.

In the overall series battle Kaisa Makaraenen (FIN) prevailed over home turf favourite Tora Berger (NOR), who suffered three penalties on the first standing session, unusual for the Norwegian star who is retiring this year. Makarainen won the overall by four points for her second overall globe.

Canada’s veteran three-time Olympian Zina Kocher, who was in second following clean shooting in both prone sessions, suffered in standing with six penalties and dropped to 21st at the finish.

“My shooting wasn’t very good at the Olympics, and I left the Games really disappointed with my performance,” added Crawford. “I’ve been very close to the top-10 in the last six races since the Games so to finally get there is great!”

“Our team has come a long way and was very strong this year,” said Crawford. “We will take this momentum into the summer and come back even stronger next year. I can’t wait to see what we can do after a summer of training.”

Results here.
Overall Standings here.

March 22, 2104 (Oslo, Norway) – American Susan Dunklee had a good day at the office as she placed 6^th in the women’s 10km pursuit in Oslo with two penalties at 1:03.4 behind winner Anastasiya Kuzmina (SVK) who won today’s race in 30:29.1, also with two penalties. Tora Berger (NOR) was second at 41.8s behind with four penalties while Olga Vilukhina (RUS) finished third with two penalties at 54.0s behind the winner.

“Two races and two times in the flower ceremony- I could get used to this,” said Dunklee. “The thing I am happiest about with my race today with my ability to stay calm and focused after an unfortunate start. I fell on a big downhill on the first loop and lost time and a couple of my ammo clips, which I had to get replacements for in the range. Over the rest of the race I slowly worked my way back up.”

Canada’s Zina Kocher finished a solid 16th with five penalties at 2:18.7 behind followed directly by teammmate Rosanna Crawford in 17th with four penalties at 2:21.0 back. Megan Heinicke (CAN) did not start.

Darya Domracheva (BLR) took an early lead as Kuzmina and Vilukhina were not far behind with Berger further back with four penalties. Dunklee moved into third ahead of Vilukhina but the final standing changed the order as Domracheva faltered with three penalties while Kuzmina cleaned to take the lead.

Vilukhina also cleaned the targets as did Berger but Dunklee suffered a penalty as well. Berger charged ahead to take second behind Kuzmina as Vilukhina took 3rd and Dunklee settled for 6th behind Domracheva in 5th.

Berger is now only 10 points behind Kaisa Makarainen (FIN) for the overall series title with one race remaining meaning more fireworks are in store for Sunday.

Two-time Olympian Sara Studebaker from Boise, ID, finished 44^th with four penalties, marking the final race of her career as she is retiring at the conclusion of the 2013-14 season.

“Today was a solid effort for me and I am happy to have that as my last race,” said Studebaker. “It was definitely a strange feeling to cross the finish line for the last time, but it also felt right. The atmosphere in Oslo is amazing – it’s the perfect place to end. I’ve had a career that I’m really proud of and I’m so thankful to all those who have supported me along the way. I’m looking forward to the next phase of life, and definitely continuing to be involved in biathlon!”

Full results here.

March 22, 2014 (Anchorage, Alaska) – Check out the latest tweets from Sophie Caldwell, Noah Hoffman, Sadie Bjornsen, Alex Harvey, Andy Newell, Holly Brooks, Dasha Gaiazova, Alaska Olympians, and Simi Hamilton just prior to the 2014 U.S. National Championships and Supertour Finals. Competition which kicks off today in Kinkaid Park at Anchorage, Alaska and runs March 22-28.

Sophie Caldwell…Welcome to Alaska!

New Race Suit for the Hoff here.

Sadie Says…Thanks @CarlileTrans for all the support! here

Andy Newell gets right to the point – Russia is like right there!

Olympians @ AK sports hall o fame (thanks Holly B) here and here.

Alex Harvey Rocks the World Cup… here.

Holly Brooks says “Bring it on Talkeetna Roadhouse here.

Dasha Gaiazova Shares Olympic stories in Cornerbrook  here.

Simi Hamilton “…ripping with my best bud” here.

Solid tail gating scene at the wax trailers in Falun courtesy of Andy Newell here.

FIS Athletes a la carte.

March 20, 2014 (Oslo, Norway) – US Biathlon’s Susan Dunklee from Barton, VT, took home her career-first podium with a brilliant bronze medal performance in the women’s 7.5km sprint in Oslo today with clean shooting at 33 seconds behind winner Darya Domracheva (BLR) with one penalty and a time of 22:18.8.

Dunklee has been knocking on the door this season and her bronze marks the second individual women’s podium finish in US Biathlon history as Joan Smith from Honeoye Falls, NY) placed second in the same event during the 1994 IBU World Cup season.

Canada’s Rosanna Crawford also had a superb day continuing her strong season with a career-best 11th with one penalty at 1:03.7 behind Domracheva. Her teammate, Zina Kocher, also had a solid day placing 16th with two penalties at 1:13.7 behind.

Dunklee was recently 4th in the 7.5km Sprint in Antholz, Italy in January with perfect shooting, adding to her confidence to claim the first podium of her career. Her teammate Lowell Bailey also marked his first podium in Kontiolahti, Finland earlier this month.

Sara Studebaker (USA) finished 41st at 1:59.1 with 1 penalty, Megan Heinicke (CAN) was 59th with three penalties and Hannah Dreissigacker was 75th at 3:20.1 suffering 5 penalties.

Full sprint results are available here.

March 18, 2014 (Corner Brook, Newfoundland) – Race Day 2 at the Haywood Ski Nationals included a wide and wild variety of weather, pretty much any type of winter weather you could imagine from rain to powder snow, with a bit of sun and high winds thrown in to mix it around. A wax tech’s nightmare, especially on a classic day with temps from -4 to +4 deg. C.

The Junior Men’s event saw Scott Hill of Team Hardwood on the top of the podium with a commanding 27 second lead over Colin Foley of Nakkertok and Alexis Dumas of Skibec.

For the Junior Women it was another 2 medals for Whitehorse as Dahria Beatty won and Annah Hanthorn claimed bronze. It was a Nakkertok sandwich as Katherine Stewart-Jones finished 2nd.

In the Open classes Jesse Cockney had a narrow victory over his Foothills teammate Kevin Sandau with Whitehorse’s Knute Johnsgaard in 3rd.

Emily Nishikawa captured Whitehorse’s 4th medal on the day with a narrow victory over Dasha Gaiazova of Mont Ste. Anne. Canmore’s Amanda Ammar was 3rd.

In the CCUNC classes, Frédéric Touchette led the way in the men’s race for Laval and Kendra Murray topped the women’s field for Carleton. CCUNC results

In the younger junior classes it was Quebec and Hollyburn claiming gold. Hollyburn topped the podium in the Jr Girls and Juvenile girls classes respectively with Katie Weaver and Annika Richardson, while Zachary Cristofanilli of Orford was the Jr. Boys champ and Antoine Laforte of Skibec won the Juvenile boys competition.

In the Juvenile Boys class there was notable finishes from Patrick McIlroy of Avalon Ski Club in Newfoundland, 4th  and Levi Nadlersmith from Downtown Ski Club, Manitoba in 5th.

It’s good to see some variety in the club names and the divisions in the top 10 of the age classes, showing that good things are taking place in development across the country.

Monday will be a rest day, with action resuming on Tuesday with interval start, skate races.

Just to keep the wax tech’s on their toes, the weather forecast is calling for a high of -12 deg. C. for Monday.

Complete Results

March 17, 2014 (Canmore, AB) – We are very pleased to announce the details of the WinSport Junior Ski Team for 2014-15. We hope that it will help retain junior skiers after they graduate from high school and we also hope to announce the head coach in the next couple weeks…

Introduction
TThe WinSport Junior Cross Country Ski Team (“WJCCST”) is a year round program for cross country skiers in the Learn to Compete and early Train to Compete stage of development, and racing in the Junior Men’s or Women’s or young Senior Men’s and Women’s categories. The athletes will have completed high school. The objective of the program is to provide top quality training and racing opportunities specific to athletes in this stage of development with the goal that these athletes will progress to a Cross Country Canada National Development Centre and the National Ski Team.

Background
This program is delivered by WinSport. WinSport is a not-for-profit winter sport institute that operates winter sport programs and facilities including Canada Olympic Park and the Olympic Oval in Calgary, the Bill Warren Training Centre at the Canmore Nordic Centre and the Beckie Scott High Performance Centre on the Haig Glacier.

Canmore Nordic Ski Club (“CNSC”) is a collaborative partner with WinSport in the delivery of the program. CNSC has been operating for more than 25 years and currently has over 600 members. It offers a full range of programs aligned with the Long Term Athlete Development Plan and Sport for Life model. CNSC athletes have raced successfully at the provincial, nationals and international level and have won medals at events ranging from the Alberta Youth Championships to the Olympic Winter Games.

The role of CNSC in this program is to provide organizational, planning and coaching expertise in the development and delivery of the program. In addition, the WJCCST will share waxing facilities and waxing personnel and will have a cooperative arrangement on some race trips and camps.    Members of the WJCCST are not expected to become members of the Canmore Nordic Ski Club.

Overview
The program has three key components:

(i) highqualitycoachingspecifictothejuniorleveltomaximizeperformanceandpotentialfor
success as a senior skier;
(ii) international racing experience (tentative for 2014/15); and
(iii) post secondary education support.

Read the full description here.

March 17, 2014 (Falun, Sweden) – Canada’s Alex Harvey capped the best season of his career with two more podiums as he finished second in the Falun mini tour and third overall in the World Cup rankings. Taking the mini tour crown was Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR), who had already secured the World Cup crystal globe as well along with the distance title, while Russia’s Alexander Legkov claimed the final mini tour podium spot and his best-ever World Cup ranking in second.

Sundby also became the first skier to win all three Tour competitions in one season – the Kuusamo mini-tour,  the Tour de Ski, and the World Cup mini-tour finale to wrap up the 2013-14 season.

“I’m super stoked. That was a super nice way to end the season,” said Harvey. “I knew yesterday I had to beat one of those two guys (Sundby and Legkov) today to be in the top-three in the overall and it was game on. My skis were awesome again today. The wax techs did an awesome job. I’m so happy!”

Harvey started the final pursuit with a 26-second margin but Sundby and Legkov ran him down by the 6km mark. With 2km to go Sundby upped the pace but was kept in check as Legkov decided it was his turn to go. But it was not his day as Harvey and Sundby countered and dropped him with Sundby soloing in for the win.

“Those are two of the best in the world and are both Olympic medallists,” commented Harvey. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I also knew I needed to beat one of them to get into that top-three. Once Legkov couldn’t respond, I just had to stay on my skis. I had great shape and the skis were really good!”

Harvey’s previous best in the World Cup overall standings was sixth in 2012 – the same year his teammate Devon Kershaw finished in second place behind Dario Cologna (SUI), the best-ever overall finish by a Canadian male. This season, en route to third overall, Harvey, racked up six medals including three gold, two silver and one bronze.

“When I grew up it was never something I thought about. My dad (Pierre) was never better than eighth in the overall. Just being on the World Cup podium was something we all dreamt of in Canada,” commented Harvey who’s father won Canada’s first World Cup in Falun back in 1987.

“We have come a long way. We know we can be fighting for the top every weekend. Devon (Kershaw) was second a couple of years ago, and now I’m third. We take a lot of satisfaction showing that we can be consistent,” added the St-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que. skier.

Kershaw, 31, found his form in Falun as he followed up his solid 12-place finish in the 30km Skiathlon with a 12th in the mini tour ending up 43rd overall. The Sudbury skier shared the podium with Harvey at the opening stage of Tour de Ski for their historic  1-2 Canadian finish with Harvey claiming the Tour leader’s jersey, another first.

The top US skier was Noah Hoffman, who finished the mini in 21st to claim a final ranking of 36th overall on the World Cup, a big improvement over last year (48th) but still shy of his goal to make the top 30.

Hoffman’s teammate Andy Newell, who dropped out of the mini tour, ended up 40th in the overall standings which was a pendulum swing in the other direction as he was 29th last year.

Canada’s Ivan Babikov was just behind Hoffman in Falun placing 23rd for a final World Cup ranking of 44th just behind Kershaw as both skiers have seen better days with Babikov topping the North Americans last year in 20th.

The USA’s Simi Hamilton finished his season in 53rd while Erik Bjornsen, a World Cup newbie was 134th as another season came to a close at the site of the 2015 Nordic World Championships.

“This has been the best season of my life by far,” added Harvey. “Obviously we didn’t deliver at the Olympics the way we wanted to which was the goal, but to be top-three in the overall, and be consistent each week. I take a lot of satisfaction in that.”

Justin Wadsworth Canadian Head Coach was smiling but knows there’s lots work still to be done. “It was a good day and a good last few days and for us to end the season like this really takes a lot of the sting out of the rest of the year which was definitely not as good as we all wanted it.

“Alex’s performance and those by Devon and Ivan were strong so we’re finishing the season on a high note. My hats off to the technicians and everyone behind the team. We went through some difficult times at the start of the season and at the Olympics and we’ve tried to learn from it and rebounded.

“Now Alex is third overall on the World Cup and for a North American to do…it’s a feat that I don’t think people realize just how big a feat it really is. He’s been living out of his suitcase and hotels for the past five months so hats off to Alex for staying professional and being the champion that his is.”

Mini Tour results here.
Distance World Cup overall here.
World Cup overall here.

March 16, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – Canada’s Brian McKeever, with guide Erik Carleton, raced to his third Paralympic title at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games on Sunday (16 March), winning the men’s 10km visually impaired cross-country skiing event in a time of 23:18.1.

“That one was tough. It hurt,” said McKeever. “I woke up this morning and didn’t feel great. It was all on the guides again today. They did such a good job with the headwind. I was able to tuck in behind them and save a lot of energy. By the time we got to the last lap there was still a little gas left to get us by today.”

Russia’s Stanislav Chokhlaev (23:25.1) and France’s Thomas Clarion (24:14.9) finished second and third behind McKeever, who claimed his 10th-career Paralympic gold in Nordic skiing.

McKeever, who became the first Winter Paralympian from Canada to win 10 career golds, has yet to make up his mind about whether he will retire before the PyeongChang 2018 Games.

“We’re going to leave the door open,” McKeever said. “We’re getting a little long in the tooth, but now is not the time to make those decisions. We’re still having fun, we’ve never been to Korea, so we’ll take it one day at a time.”

The Canadians leveraged a two-guide race strategy to pull McKeever to the top of the podium. The 36-year-old Carleton, of Canmore, Alta., led the way around the first 6.5-kilometres before coach Robin McKeever called in Graham Nishikawa, of Whitehorse, to pull him into the winner’s circle. McKeever was behind 12 seconds at the five-kilometre mark in the race.

“Having guided for 10 years I know how incredibly hard it is to do this job in the wind,” said Robin McKeever, head coach, Canadian Para-Nordic Ski Team, who led his brother to 10 Paralympic podiums. “It is like a tow truck pulling a Ferrari out there in the wind.

“For the guide, it is like doing a one-kilometre sprint race just to stay ahead of Brian. But the problem is you have to keep that pace for nine more kilometres. It is so difficult.”

Consummate team players, Carleton and Nishikawa shared the workload and trips to the podium this week to help McKeever accomplish his goal of a golden hat-trick. “It is so tough out there and I’m thankful Graham was here to help us out and get the job done,” said Carleton. “I went hard off the start and just tried to hang on.”

“Brian is just such an incredible athlete so it is very difficult to stay ahead of him,” added Nishikawa. “This whole week has been such an awesome experience. I’ve been so impressed with everything, and of course I’d love to be back again.”

The victories bring McKeever’s Paralympic gold medal count to 10, making him the only winter Paralympian to reach double digits. He has a total of 13 Paralympic medals.

“The medals this week were very special,” said McKeever. “The way we did it was such a team effort. Both guides gave me a solid draft all week, which made a huge difference in the conditions. We orchestrated a great team effort and that makes it so special to me.”

Chris Klebl, of Canmore, Alta., shocked the world to win the men’s 10-kilometre sit-ski race. The 42-year-old Klebl put down the performance of the Games when it counted most to win Canada its final gold medal, and secure the country its goal of finishing in the top-three in the overall medal count. Klebl clocked a time of 30 minutes, 52.0 seconds (30:52.0).

He held off the Ukraine’s Maksym Yarovyi, who finished second at 31:06.5. Russia’s Grigory Murygin skied to the bronze at 31:18.2. For the first time at Sochi 2014, Russia’s Roman Petushkov failed to medal, finishing fourth in the men’s 10km sitting competition in 31:22.5 after already winning six golds at the Games.

“It feels pretty good for sure,” said Klebl. “I have exceptional skis for wet, sloppy conditions and today we got exactly those conditions. It just feels good. We prepare for this over and over and over again to try and get things to line up, and today it did.”

A three-time Paralympian, Klebl moved to Canmore, Alta. to join the Canucks from the United States following the 2010 Games. He first made history as a member of the Canadian Team in 2011 by winning the World Championships in the sit-ski distance race.

Klebl, who grew up in Austria where he skied and snowboarded, became paralyzed from the waist down in 1995 in a snowboarding accident.

Sunday’s victory was particularly important as Canada was in a fight for third spot in the overall Paralympic gold medal count with the Ukraine with the final sit-ski race remaining.

“It means a tonne to me to contribute to Canada’s medal count,” said Klebl. “Four years ago I made a major decision to move to Canada, and Cross Country Canada and the Own the Podium program have backed me since. I just wanted to pay them back.”

Army veteran Andy Soule (San Antonio, Texas) once again was the top finisher for the U.S. placing ninth overall with a time of 32:56.1. He was followed closely by Lt Cmdr Dan Cnossen (Topeka, Kan.) who was 10th with a time of 33:02.0. Aaron Pike (Park Rapids, Minn.) was 14th with a time of 34:00.0. Retired Airman Sean Halsted (Spokane, Wash.) finished 16th and Army veteran Jeremy Wagner (Nanakuli, Hawaii) and Marine Corps veteran Travis Dodson (Deming, N.M.) were 22nd and 23rd, respectively.

The U.S. Paralympic Nordic skiing team closed out the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi in exciting fashion today as Oksana Masters (Louisville, Ky.) won bronze in the women’s 5km sit ski cross-country race at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon Stadium.

Masters finished the race in 17:04.8 just behind Germany’s Andrea Eskau who won with a time of 16:08.6 and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Pavlenko who was second with a time of 16:27.0.

It was the second medal for Masters and the third overall for the American squad. Masters won a silver medal in the 12km cross-country race earlier in the Games.

Today’s performance was the perfect end to the Games for Masters. “I am in complete shock and amazement,” said Masters. “It has been an amazing first Paralympic Winter Games.”

The race featured 23 competitors so it was difficult to know exactly where the racers stood until the finish. This made the race particularly challenging for the competitors.

“It just goes to show that when you are out here in the middle of a race and you work hard enough and put your heart into it that you’re going to make anything you want happen,” noted Masters. “I sure as heck was fighting for every square inch of this course, so I am so lucky.”

The race also featured Tatyana McFadden (Clarksville, Md.), the only other American to medal in Nordic skiing at the Games. McFadden also raced well, finishing in seventh place with a time of 17:27.8.

For McFadden, who finished in the top 10 of each of her races here in Sochi, it was a fitting end to a great Games. “It’s been a great experience and a great ride. I did really well my first Paralympic Winter Games, it’s been quite an experience,” said McFadden.

Anna Milenina of Russia picked up her second gold of the Games, winning the women’s 5km standing race in 13:31.9 ahead of Ukraine’s Iuliia Batenkovam (13:44.4) and Oleksandra Kononova (13:46.9).

Russia swept the podium in the men’s 10km standing race, with Aleksandr Pronkov (23:59.9), Vladimir Kononov (24:00.7) and Vladislav Lekomtcev (24:06.5) taking gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

Pronkov, just 16 years old, is one of the youngest members of the Russian delegation and took his first medal in his last of five events at Sochi 2014.

“I’m 16 years old. I trained with our team for one year. When I was a kid, I wanted to become a football player, but it was impossible,” Pronkov said. “I met my coach and now skiing is my life. I’m now a Paralympic champion.”

The host nation kept up their dominance in the women’s 5km visually impaired event, taking all three spots on the podium once again, with Elena Remizova grabbing the gold in 13:23.8 to give herself three Paralympic titles in Sochi.

Mikhalina Lysova (13:27.7) took the silver, and Iuliia Budaleeva (13:28.6) finished in the bronze-medal position.

Russia finished with a total of 32 medals in the Sochi 2014 cross-country skiing competition, including 12 golds, nine silvers and 11 bronze.

Full results here.

March 16, 2014 (Corner Brook, Newfoundland) – Race Day 1 at the Haywood Ski Nationals got underway on Saturday (Mar. 15) with Team Sprints at the Blow Me Down ski trails in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. The classic event was run on great tracks considering there was a full day of freezing rain 48 hours before.

The races were a tale of two parts of the country as the North and West dominated the older age categories and the East was on top in most of the younger races.

In the Open Women’s class it was Whitehorse ski club that dominated capturing a gold and bronze medal. For gold it was an easy ski as junior Dahria Beatty and Olympian Emily Nishikawa led most of the way for a 20 second victory over Foothills skiers Marlis Kromm and Olympian Heidi Widmer. It was the Whitehorse #2 team in 3rd, Anna Hanthorn and Kendra Murray, 3 seconds later.

The Open Men’s race was a tight battle for the podium positions between Foothills, Canmore and Whitehorse.  The lead changed many times and at the finish it was Foothills Olympian Jesse Cockney who edged out Phil Widmer for the victory by .8 seconds. Foothills and Canmore had led out with Kevin Sandau and Russell Kennedy, Whitehorse picked up a 3rd medal with Colin Abbot and Knute Johnsgaard just .5 seconds later.

The college/university races saw Lakehead University gain a commanding 18 second victory in the woman’s race led by Erin Tribe and Alannah Maclean. U Laval were 2nd with Camille Pepin and Myriam Paquette and Lakehead picked up another medal with Jennifer Jackson and Annie Mathews.

The men’s CCUNC race was a bit tighter as Laval and Lakehead battled it out for the title. Vincent Roseberry and Frédéric Touchette prevailed for Laval at the finish with a .3 second photo finish victory over Greg Kilroy and Harry Seaton. Carleton’s André Marchand and Steffan Lloyd came 3rd, in another very close finish over Lakehead 2 with Scott Hill and Victor Hopper.

The Challenge Boys race was a tight competition with 3 Skibec teams challenging for the lead with Team Hardwood and Chelsea Nordiq.

It was a 3 way sprint to the finish and it took a long look at the photo finish to determine that Chelsea’s William Dumas and Aaron Fahey had outlunged Skibec’s Olivier Hamel and Philippe Boucher by a fraction of a second.  Joey Foster and Ryan Jackson came 3rd just 2 seconds later.

The Challenge girls event was a little more clear cut as Hollyburn with Katie Weaver and Annika Richardson had a 3 second victory over Montériski’s Delphine Duvernay Tardif and Gabrielle Sarthou. Laurence Dumais and Dafné Théroux Izquierdo of Fondeur Laurentides came 3rd narrowly beating Big Thunder’s Camille Hamm and Mia Serratore for bronze.

Results

There a reason for the  Blow Me Down club’s name and predicted 100 km/hr winds overnight should introduce the visitors to the local weather. It is doubtful the wax tech’s will sleep much before Sunday’s individual classic races as the weather is supposed to be sub zero with some snow early in the morning, changing to rain and +4 in the middle of the races and then changing back below zero with snow later in the afternoon.

March 15, 2014 (Falun, Sweden) – In a stunning display of skiing prowess Canada’s Alex Harvey demonstrated that he can ski with the best in the world and defeat them as well claiming the men’s 30km Skiathlon today in Falun in what he described as “…maybe one of the best races of my life.”

Falun has been good to Harvey and his legendary father Pierre who won Canada’s first-ever World Cup race here in 1987 and again in 1988 after the Calgary Games. That year Pierre went on to win the 50km at the Holmenkollen in Olso.

The final battle was between Harvey and overall World Cup title winner, Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway, who settled for second as the 25-year-old Canuck out-sprinted him to the line for the win while 50km CL Olympic gold medalist, Alexander Legkov of Russia, ended up third suffering a broken pole just before they hit the horseshoe section in the stadium.

“I think it was the best race of the season for me and one of the best races of my life,” said Harvey. “I was a bit sore from the sprint (yesterday) because it is such an intense sprint course, but by the end of my warm-up I was feeling good. My body felt really good and the equipment was there too. I was bit surprised to be skiing with two of the world’s best skiers. I just used good tactics and it was great to get the win.”

Harvey on his victory

Powering his way to his fifth podium and third victory of the season Harvey executed his race plan to perfection leading up the final climb and then on the downhill he let up so Sundby and Legkov would be in front heading into the stadium and the finishing lanes. This way he could see things unfold while drafting them on the final downhill and then slingshot his way to gold. He used a similar tactic in Friday’s sprint where he finished fourth.

“I knew Legkov and Sundby were good climbers so I wanted to keep ahead of them so they didn’t drop me,” said Harvey. “I raced that sprint course four times yesterday. They didn’t get to do that, and I know when you get to the top of the course [Morderbakken] you don’t want to be in the lead heading into the stadium so I just used that tactic to step aside and let them go ahead, and it worked.”

The selection came early as five leaders established themselves by the 5km mark including Sweden’s Daniel Richardsson and Calle Halfvarsson but the latter didn’t last long. The four leaders looked untouchable but Matti Heikkinen (FIN) along with other top skiers like Eldar Roenning (NOR) tried in vain to reel them in.

Harvey’s teammate Devon Kershaw was in the mix as well at the front of the chase group showing signs of his old self, perhaps inspired by his teammate, or ready to assist him if needed.

Prior to the exchange Legkov was the main protagonist during the classic leg but Harvey decided to send a message as he pushed to the front as well. Then Sundby took over and at the 20km mark Richardsson started to crack…and now it was a 3-horse race.

Sundby continued to lead but Harvey was ready to send another message and with 3km to go he asserted himself again knowing his plan as he looked strong at every stage of the race. Over the final climb Harvey stepped aside and let his two rivals move to the front as he waited for the right moment.

As Harvey made his move on the inside on the final push up the horseshoe climb in the stadium Legkov suddenly broke his pole as he came close to Harvey…  quickly he had a replacement but by then he was out of the running. Harvey then chased down Sundby in the finishing lanes passing him just before the line for a spectacular victory.

It was the fifth podium finish of the 2014 World Cup season for Harvey, and the 12th of his career. He also won a sprint race in Poland earlier this year, along with a gold, silver and bronze at this year’s Tour de Ski.

The St-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que. skier also has two World Championship medals on his resume. He won gold in the team sprint with Devon Kershaw in 2011, and finished third in the individual sprint race last year in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

Like his father Harvey has had great success in Falun – his first World Cup victory came here in 2012 when he won gold and bronze at the World Cup finals that year – watch his father’s 1987 Falun victory below.

“I just love racing and Falun is always at the end of the season,” said Harvey. “I think some guys when they feel tired at the end of the year they shut down in the head a bit, but I just love to race. When there may be tired bodies at the end of the season, I like to keep going. The course is so hard and it requires sustained work, and I just enjoy racing here.”

Kershaw ended up a strong 12th while the USA’s Noah Hoffman was a solid 18th with Ivan Babikov finishing 23rd. “It was very nice to see Alex winning today and Devon finding his form. Was a tough one for me, it’s nice to get some points but too bad that I couldn’t stay with Devon’s group,” said Babikov.

Harvey now has his sights on the overall World Cup podium. Both Sundby and Legkov have secured their positions in first and second, but with the withdrawal of Norway’s Chris Andre Jespersen from today’s Skiathlon, Harvey has the opportunity to move into third in the overall standings with a first or second-place finish on Sunday – he trails Jespersen by 133 points.

The Canadian leads the World Cup finals mini-tour by 26.0s over Sundby and 26.1s ahead of Legkov as the men will contest the the final World Cup of the season, a 15km pursuit start free technique race which wraps things up.

“I am for sure taking my chances for tomorrow. I will ski the first lap at my pace, and see if I gain or lose some seconds. I know if they catch me they will have to work 26 seconds harder,” said Harvey, whose career-best overall World Cup finish was sixth in 2012.

“This has been the best season of my life. Obviously we didn’t have the magic we needed at the Olympics which was the goal, but I have five podiums this year, three victories, and this just reconfirms all of the work we did in the summer. I’m confident in my tactics and finishing ability so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

Interview with Head Coach Justin Wadsworth

Results here.

March 15, 2014 (Kontiolahti, Finland) – The USA’s Lowell Bailey posted the first IBU World Cup podium of his career with superb clean shooting to take home the bronze in the men’s 10km sprint at Kontiolahti, Finland at 19.4 seconds behind winner Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR). In second was Alexander Loginov (RUS) also shooting clean at 18.5s back.

“It’s been a long time coming. I’m obviously really happy,” said Bailey of his first World Cup podium. “I’ve been working toward this for over ten, twenty years. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time, and I’ve been knocking at the door for the last three years. This year I’ve come so close a lot of different times, it’s nice to finally do it. I had a pretty specific game plan going into today and I was able to execute it.”

Canada’s Nathan Smith, also had a great race with one penalty finishing 8th at 33.6s behind the winner for his top sprint result while matching his best-ever result overall.

“Excellent skiing was definitely the difference maker for me today,” said Smith, who missed one shot in two rounds of shooting. “I’ve had a handful of comparable ski speeds and missing one is not too out of the ordinary for me.  I’ve only been able to combine my best shooting and skiing a few times this year so this was a great day.”

The 28 year old has been battling illness since making his Olympic debut in Sochi two weeks ago. “I was happy to be feeling good finally after the Olympics,” added Smith. “I came down with a bad cold the last few days, and was still suffering from it until a few days ago. My race earlier this week was good so I knew I was starting to come out of the sickness slump.”

US Biathlon’s Tim Burke finished 19th at 1:10.0 behind with two penalties followed by Leif Nordgren in 27th with one penalty at 1:23.0 behind. Canada’s Brendan Green was very close in 28th at 1:23.3 back with Scott Gow in 42nd at 1:48.8 behind.

Good conditions meant the top four  finishers all shot clean as Boe took his second victory in a row setting the best time early on as all challengers took aim but none could unseat him. Bailey was in second after cleaning all targets in standing but was overtaken by Loginov in the final loop holding on to third with a slim advantage over Ondrej Moravec of Czech Republic in 4th at 0.3s back.

“I did not have such a great race on Thursday so I had a game plan today and executed it today. I think that hitting all of targets in standing is key for me. I definitely had a few opportunities where I was close and I struggled in standing… definitely standing shooting is where it’s at,” said Bailey in an interview with Biathlonworld.com.

“Everybody on the team is so happy for Lowell’s podium today,” said US Biathlon Head Coach Per Nilsson. “Many years of training and professional attitude to the sport finally paid off. The way he carried through the race was fantastic! Being determined and disciplined in a couple of key things works for Lowell as an athlete. The good attack mode he hade made his day. We all know the good skills he has as an athlete, and it was great to see him show that today.”

“It is so wonderful to see Lowell standing on the podium today,” said Max Cobb, US Biathlon CEO. It’s so exciting to see his years of hard work shine through in his great performance today. Today Lowell joins the very exclusive Podium Club – a lifetime goal achieved! History made! Hats off to the high performance staff, working tirelessly to help the athletes achieve their personal bests every day. Susan had another strong performance too and Tim and Leif are well positioned for the pursuit on Sunday,” he added

Results here.

March 15, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – Brian McKeever and Chris Klebl formed a one-two Canadian punch to finish fourth in the open 4×2.5km  relay on Saturday at the first-ever relays at the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi.

Sit-skier Roman Petushkov won a remarkable sixth gold medal as he and teammates Vladislay Lekomtcev, Grigory Murygin and Rushan Minnegulov combined to beat Ukraine by 55.1 seconds, finishing the course in 24:22.8. Ukraine’s team (25:17.9) consisted of Olena Iurkovska, Ihor Reptyukh, Iurii Utkin and Vitaliy Lukyanenko.

McKeever and Klebl are two Canmore, Alta. residents who teamed up to ski two legs each in the unique event, which requires each team to have a minimum of two (men or women) skiers and maximum of four.

“It is a unique format and unpredictable because you are skiing against many people for the first time and in all classifications, but we gave it a good shot today and should be happy,” said McKeever. “Chris was strong and I also felt good, but we just ran out of a gas a bit at the end and came up a bit short of the podium.”

McKeever continued to leverage both guides here with him in Sochi. The 12-time Paralympic medallist skied the opening leg with Erik Carleton, of Canmore, Alta., and the anchor leg with Graham Nishikawa, of Whitehorse.

“The job isn’t over yet,” said Carleton. “We had a good day today, but we have one more race tomorrow and we will now be sure to get ready for it.”

“My congratulations to all the Russian teams and fans. This gold medal is for them,” Petushkov said. “I’m so calm about medals because sport is my profession.”

France’s two-man team of Benjamin Daviet and Thomas Clarion held off the charging Canucks to win the bronze medal with a time of 25:30.3, their country’s first Paralympic relay medal since the Nagano 1998 Games, where they also won bronze.

The USA’s open relay squad finished 9th with a time of 29:58.3 and was made up of Omar Bermejo (Grand Rapids, Mich.), visually impaired skier and Navy veteran Kevin Burton (Boulder, Colo.), and sit-skiers Augusto Perez (East Syracuse, N.Y.) and Army veteran Bryan Price (Leeton, Mo.).

In the mixed relay, just when it seemed Russia might not even finish on the podium, Nikolay Polukhin stormed home in the final leg of the race to complete the course in 27:35.6 and snag the gold for the host nation with teammates Alena Kaufman, Elena Remizova and Svetlana Konovalova.

The Russians were in eighth place after the second leg but gradually moved forward in the race and surpassed Sweden and Norway in the final leg to top the podium.

“We have most responsibility in the relay because we race for the whole team and country,” Polukhin said. “At the start, we must not go too fast, as we could get tired in the middle of the race. We must also not go too slowly, as we could lose time.

“But our coaches had a good plan and it worked.”

Sweden (27:44.3), with 19-year-old Zebastian Modin and 42-year-old Helen Ripa each skiing two legs of the race, finished second to take the silver.

Norway (27:53.6) won their second medal of the Sochi 2014 Paralympics, taking bronze in the mixed relay with the team of Mariann Marthinsen, Nils-Erik Ulset and Eirik Bye.

The American mixed relay team, which can include two, three or four competitors but must include at least one woman, was made up of just two competitors. Sit skier and 2014 Winter Paralympic silver medalist Tatyana McFadden (Clarksville, Md.) skied the first and third legs of the relay while visually impaired skier Jake Adicoff (Sun Valley, Idaho), who was joined by his guide Reid Pletcher (Ketchum, Idaho) skied the second and fourth legs.

Adicoff and McFadden finished 6th in a time of 29:06.7. “I personally love the team aspect, because you try just that much harder for the team,” said Pletcher.  “It’s not just about you; it’s about doing anything you can and giving your last bit of energy for the team.”

McFadden echoed those thoughts. “It was the first time that we have been able to do this together so it was nice to have the team effort instead of just having to go out there individually, we were really able to support each other out there.”

The team’s decision to only include two competitors in the first race was all about strategy as the number of skiers and overall makeup of the team were carefully calculated all week by the U.S. coaching staff.

“The most important thing today for us as a nation is that we got to field two full relay teams,” said Team Leader John Farra. “Team relays are such a great way to bring the team together. We all did face paint today and really felt like Team USA, I am really proud of how the guys performed.”

Open relay results here.
Mixed relay results here.

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.

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.

“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.”

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.

“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.

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.

March 14, 2013 (Falun, Sweden) – It was a day of showmanship in the women’s 1.2km Sprint CL in Falun as Kikkan Randall and Sophie Caldwell made the final for an American first – in classic sprint race – facing off against Norway’s Marit Bjoergen and Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg. Joining them on the start line were Sweden’s Stina Nilsson and Finland’s Krista Lahteenmaki.

When the dust settled it was Bjoergen’s day to shine again as she out-muscled and out-manoeuvred the up-and-coming Oestberg for the win with Nilsson taking the bronze. Both Randall and Caldwell had a tough start and got caught behind as Oestberg jumped quickly into the lead forcing a frantic pace. Randall recovered to claim 4th with a tired Caldwell taking 6th.

The race also marked the final sprint of the 2013-14 World Cup season as Randall, who had already secured her third consecutive title in Drammen on March 5, was awarded the Sprint Cup globe while her teammates rallied around hoisting her up in celebration as only two other women have achieved the hat-trick accolade – Bjoergen and Bente Skari both Norwegians.

“We received the sprint globes today and it’s still a very special feeling to feel the weight of that crystal in your hand.  A bunch of my teammates and all the staff were out there to celebrate the ceremony with me and the support I feel from everyone has made every globe so special.  The US program is definitely coming up and up and I am confident that there are many more globes possible for this team,” she told Trax.

We wondered about the historic first Classic sprint final with Caldwell. Randall also landed her first CL sprint podium in Kuusamo at the beginning of the season.

“Really fun to be back in the final with Sophie!  It was a really good feeling to see two American flags on the scoreboard as we headed to the start. It was really fun to test out the brand new sprint course here in Falun, which will be used for the World Championships next year,” Randall told Trax post-race.

“Neither Sophie or I got a very fast start in the final and were chasing the pack right off the bat – something we need to work on for sure.  But once we got onto the climb we worked our way solidly into the chase pack behind the top three.

“Each time up the steep climb I felt like I wasn’t able to nail the technique well enough to use all my power. I was able to carry my speed off the downhill well but there was too much of a gap up to the top three for any draft.  I just hammered as hard as I could the rest of the way.

“Energy was really good today.  There are a few technical adjustments that I need to make for next year and I think I can be up with the top three.  I was really happy with my double-pole in the finish each time.  This was a really fun course to race.  Definitely hard with the big climb but I think it will be a good course for the World Championships,” she added.

Earlier in the day the three US qualifiers Randall, Caldwell and Sadie Bjornsen, found themselves in the same quarterfinal but not of their choosing.

“We usually hope to spread out our chances of advancing a little bit more but sometimes you just all end up together. We did talk strategy before the heats and decided we would try to race as fast as we could so that there might be chances for Lucky Losers. I have to say it was a really cool feeling to be in the heat with three of us. We all had decent starts.  Sadie was really strong up the climb with me following on the outside and Sophie right behind on the inside. We all skied the downhill well and we headed into the stadium with Sadie leading, Sophie next and me in third,” explained Randall.

“I got a little bit of a draft so I pulled up next to Sadie up the last small climb and we call came off the final turn pretty close.  I swung wide and double-poled hard and kept the lead down the homestretch, but it was really close between all of us.  Unfortunately our heat wasn’t quite fast enough to get Sadie through as LL,” said Randall.

Caldwell concurred adding, “It was unfortunate that we were all in the same quarter because usually only two move on, but we wanted to be top three and hope that it was a fast enough heat that one of us would be lucky loser. We were top 3, but unfortunately it wasn’t fast enough and Sadie didn’t move on. I have to say, it was a pretty cool feeling coming into the stadium with the three of us in the lead. I hope someone got a photo.”

Ida Sargent, who qualified in 24th, placed 5th in her quarterfinal and did not advance to the semis. Jessie Diggins (USA) was 36th, Liz Stephen (USA) placed 44th and Caitlin Gregg was 48th as only the top 30 advance. The lone Canadian woman to hit the start line, Andrea Dupont, who earned a spot with the top-50 at the World Cup Finals after leading the Haywood NorAm series, finished 46th and did not qualify for the heats as well.

Caldwell aced her semi final with smart fast skiing placing second behind Oestberg while Randall was third in her heat behind Bjoergen and Nilsson but advanced to the final as a Lucky Loser setting the stage for the historic sprint classic final of the American team.

“I was in fourth at the top of the hill but moved up to third in the stadium.  I kept punching it all the way to the line and made it through to the final as the LL,” said Randall.

Caldwell was stoked as well telling us, “Yeah that was pretty cool. Lahti was my first time ever being in a final with a teammate and it definitely makes it more special,” commented Caldwell. “Instead of you vs. the 5 other skiers, there’s some more team pride and it feels like 2 of you vs. 4 other skiers. I didn’t have a great start but I was mostly just exhausted. I like the hillier classic courses, but they’re really demanding and as a result, I get pretty tired. My fitness feels really good through the semis, but that extra heat leaves me pretty exhausted. Something to work on!”

With her victory Bjoergen moved within three points of Therese Johaug in the overall World Cup standings and secured third in the overall World Cup sprint standings. Meanwhile Randall is now neck and neck with Heidi Weng (NOR) for 4th overall.

“I’m really happy to still be feeling strong and able to put up a good fight to stay high in the overall.  There are still two more tough races to go but I will do my best to keep gaining points,” she concluded

Results here.
Sprint Cup final here.
Overall WCup here.

March 14, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – Andy Soule, an Army veteran, just narrowly missed out on a medal once again, finishing fourth with a time of 44:52.6 in the men’s 15km sitting biathlon race. Russia swept the podium with Roman Petushkov winning the race by more than two minutes over Grigory Murygin. Petushkov finished in a time of 42:20.8 with Murygin finishing in 44:25.7. Aleksandr Davidovich was third at 44:46.2.

Soule continues to be the standout male athlete of these Games for the American squad as he has yet to finish lower than fifth in any event in Sochi. And although he has not landed on the podium thus far, Soule reiterated that he has been pleased with all of his races.

“I just have to race within myself and not worry about what anyone else is doing because I can’t control it. I’ve put together a lot of good races in these Games.”

Soule was impressive on the range today, just as he has been throughout the Games, once again shooting clean by going a perfect 20-for-20.  That brought his Games total to 50-for-50 across all biathlon competitions, an incredible feat for any Nordic athlete and one that Soule is particularly pleased with.

“I am really proud of going 100 percent from the range in these Games,” said Soule. “I also had decent range times throughout so I could not have done much better; I had a great Games in biathlon.”

Lt Cmdr Dan Cnossen, who is still relatively new to Nordic skiing after having only taken up the sport less than three years ago, was also impressive today. Cnossen finished in 10th place with a time of 48:27.8, which included two, one-minute penalties for missed shots. It was Cnossen’s best finish in biathlon in Sochi after finishing 11th in the 12.5km and 14th in the 6km events earlier in the competition.

Cnossen was satisfied with his finish today but will evaluate today’s race and use it as a tool to assist him in his ongoing development.

“It’s a good take away for me, because as a biathlete I am still developing,” admitted Cnossen. “Today I learned to focus on the skiing, ski hard when I can but then relax in the range and to not do anything different.”

Petushkov continues to prove unstoppable in the Nordic skiing events at the Sochi 2014 Paralympics, winning his fifth gold medal of the Games. “Fans at the stadium shouted, ‘Roman, we want a fifth gold medal.’ That’s why I had to take first place,” Petushkov said. “My mental training is easy. I just tell myself, ‘I must.'”

Also placing well was Air Force veteran Sean Halsted (Spokane, Wash.). Halsted finished right behind Cnossen in 11th place with a time of 48:31.1 and was quick to note how fast the course was today.

“It was intense out there today; it was definitely slick,” pointed out Halsted. “I had to fine tune how I raced today and figure out how I was going to hit this fast snow.”

Also competing in the 15km sitting biathlon were Jeremy Wagner (Nanakuli, Hawaii), Aaron Pike (Park Rapids, Minn.) and Travis Dodson (Deming, N.M.) who finished 18th, 19th and 21st, respectively.

After racking up two Paralympic silvers already this week, Russia’s Nikolay Polukhin (36:42.9) finally got his first Sochi 2014 gold in the men’s 15km visually impaired biathlon with guide Andrey Tokarev with a time of 36:42.9. Ukrainians Anatolii Kovalevskyi (38:18.2) and Vitaliy Lukyanenko (38.21.6) finished with the silver and bronze, respectively.

“Yes, it finally happened – my first Paralympic individual gold medal,” Polukhin said. “I’d promised four years ago in Vancouver that I would win Paralympic gold in the individual race in Sochi.

“My federation and trainers have been waiting for me to win a gold since 8 March, but there were some imperfections and mistakes. Today, I tried to do everything without them, to shoot restrained and in cold blood. Everything turned out as I wished.”

Ukraine’s Grygorii Vovchynskyi won gold in the men’s 12.5km standing in a time of 37:41.1 to clinch his first medal of the Games, beating Norway’s Nils-Erik Ulset (37:44.2) by just one-tenth of a second. Russia’s top finisher in the event was Kirill Mikhaylov (37:45.6), who took the bronze.

Canada’s Mark Arendz gutted out an 11th-place finish. Sharp all week while winning two medals, the Paralympic gods dealt the 24-year-old Canuck a blow heading into the final biathlon competition with an intense head cold. Debating whether to even start, the Harstville, P.E.I. native put all the energy he had on the line, but struggled clocking a time of 40:34.2 (1+0+0+1). The USA’s Omar Bermejo finished 17th.

“Starting today was touch and go but we made the decision this morning to do it,” said Arendz. “The skiing and shooting has been there and the fitness has been incredible so it is frustrating that I got sick now.”

The long distance biathlon events put a premium on shooting with every missed shot costing the athlete a one-minute penalty. Arendz missed two under cool, cloudy and calm conditions at the Laura Stadium.

“If there is any race you have to rely on the shooting it is this one and I missed it a little,” added Arendz. “The focus was there today. It is just a lot battling the ups and downs with the sick. The shape is just so incredibly good right now. I wish I stayed healthy. Makes me hungry for another four years I guess.”

Russian 24-year-old Svetlana Konovalova continued her Paralympic medal streak by winning the women’s 12.5km sitting biathlon in 40:44.0 – putting on a very impressive performance after finishing in seventh place in the event at the 2013 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships.

Germany’s Anja Wicker (41:27.1) and Ukraine’s Olena Iurkovska (41:30.8) completed the podium, finishing second and third.

There was more Russia and Ukraine dominance in the women’s 12.5km standing biathlon, with Ukrainian Oleksandra Kononova grabbing gold in 40:30.6 ahead of two Russians – Alena Kaufman (40:32.7) and Natalia Bratiuk (41:00.9). Canadian Caroline Bisson from Ottaway placed 12th at 56:21.8 (1+2+0+1).

Iuliia Budaleeva took the gold in the women’s 12.5km visually impaired event in 35:25.9, defeating favourite and compatriot Mikhalina Lysova (37:21.0), who took silver. Ukraine’s Oksana Shyshkova (37:48.8) finished in third place.

Full results here.

March 12, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – Brian McKeever is certainly capturing the world’s attention in Sochi, Russia. And it is not just because he skied to his ninth Paralympic gold medal on Wednesday in Sochi, Russia.

McKeever and guide, Graham Nishikawa, ploughed through the field and more than 30 centimetres of fresh snow to win their second gold medal of the week in spectacular fashion in the visually impaired sprint races at the Paralympic Winter Games.

Leading all qualifiers in the head-to-head heats with the top-12 athletes, the two Canadians handily advanced to the final where the 12-time Paralympic medallist faced the biggest adversity of his career.

Stacked against two Russians, and a Swede in the final, the 30-year-old Nishikawa (Whitehorse) appeared to have led McKeever (Canmore, Alta.) through the cluttered pack of guides and athletes into clear trail until the unthinkable happened near the 200-metre mark.

A Russian skier stepped on McKeever’s pole – sending the 34-year-old airborne and onto his backside – before bouncing back up and hunting the leaders, and his ninth career Paralympic gold medal down.

“Wow, that was stressful,” sighed McKeever at the finish. “It wouldn’t be right for me to tell you what I said in my head, but once the cuss words were out, the only thing you can do is get back up and race.

“I thought we were clear, but that is normal and it happens in sprinting when you are all fighting and tight. Everyone is going flat out. It is intense and everyone is at their limit. We are just fortunate it happened in the first 200 metres and not at the end so we had time to catch up.”

After taking a deep breadth, Nishikawa took control, putting the throttle down and commandeering the Canucks back into contention in the action-packed one-kilometre sprint race.

“When I saw him go down, I immediately panicked and just thought ‘OH NO! Not now,” said Nishikawa. “It wasn’t until we got back up around the Russians and had the Swedes in sight that I felt a huge relief.”

“What a set of wheels on Graham today. That was impressive,” said McKeever. “The snow was so heavy today. He basically towed me up that hill and got me around the Russian roadblock out there and gave us a chance. It is not how we planned things, but that was a pretty awesome day.”

Sweden’s Zebastian Modin hung on for the silver medal, while Russia’s Oleg Ponomarev outraced his countryman for the bronze.

Adding to the dramatics, it was the first time Nishikawa had guided his friend, and training partner, on his own in international competition. After racing together over the last decade in Canada, McKeever recruited Nishikawa into his training group this fall with the goal of bringing two guides to the Paralympics for the first time ever.

Earlier this week, Nishikawa, who races able-bodied both domestically in Canada and on the World Cup circuit, shared guiding duties with Erik Carleton to lead McKeever to his first gold of the 2014 Games. Recognizing the stress the warm weather, and heavy snow conditions was putting on the guides for the long-distance races, the innovative Canadians leveraged both guides – switching at the midway point. With McKeever dropping into third place, Nishikawa stepped in to blaze a trail to the gold medal step of the podium.

Carleton’s name was on the start list so he was the only one to receive a gold medal. But on Thursday, Nishikawa will get his due and receive a gold medal of his own.

“It feels absolutely awesome,” beamed Nishikawa. “I said earlier this is a whole new world for me. I’m so impressed by everything. This whole experience has been amazing and I just wanted to do whatever I could to be here and help Brian. We have been friends for a long time so this is very special.”

From sunny t-shirt weather, to pouring rain, to dumping heavy snow on Wednesday, Mother Nature is sending the world’s top Para-Nordic wax technicians into a daily frenzy at Laura Stadium.

“These conditions are definitely stressful on the wax techs,” said McKeever. “Every day they basically start from ground zero based on the conditions. We had amazing boards today and the guys deserve a lot of credit. We were so fast on the downhills which really got us back into the race today.”

The victory brings McKeever’s career medal haul to 12 at the Paralympics, including his nine gold. If he can chalk up one more victory this week he will become the first Canadian Winter Paralympian with at least 10 gold medals, and third Paralympian in Canada overall to accomplish the feat.

American Paralympic superstar Tatyana McFadden (Clarksville, Md.) added another accomplishment to her already storied Paralympic career by winning a silver medal in the 1-kilometer sitting cross-country race at the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi.

McFadden finished the race with a time of 2:45.7, just 0.1 behind Norway’s Mariann Marthinsen who won gold in what was the most hotly contested and exciting race of the day at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon Center.

Russia’s Marta Zaynullina was third with a time of 2:46.6 and American Oksana Masters (Louisville, Ky.) who already won a silver medal in these Games, finished fourth in the race with a time of 2:47.6. Of the four events Masters has competed in she has now finished in the top five of three of them. Canada’s Colette Bourgonje from Saskatoon also competed finishing 16th.

The race was close from start to finish and played out the way McFadden thought it would, which made sticking to her game plan incredibly important.

“I could not go easy, I needed to go hard from the start,” said McFadden. “I knew that they were coming and I could feel them down my neck. It was a good race.”

This is the 11th Paralympic medal of McFadden’s career but her first ever Paralympic Winter Games medal. McFadden, who is competing in her first ever Paralympic Winter Games also has 10 Paralympic medals in track & field.

Perhaps more interesting than McFadden winning a medal however, is that it comes just less than one year after taking up the sport of Nordic skiing.

John Farra, who serves as the head of the U.S. Nordic skiing program and recruited McFadden to the sport was quick to emphasize how incredible it is for an athlete to medal on the world’s biggest stage after just picking up the sport.

“It’s pretty amazing for Tatyana to be able to finish what she started…taking someone from a summer sport and putting them in a sit ski and teaching them to ski effectively and try to have them win a medal for you is a tough task in just one winter of skiing,” admitted Farra. “I am psyched that it worked out, it was a really exciting race.”

McFadden now joins an elite group of athletes who own both summer and winter Paralympic medals, an accomplishment that had not yet sunk in at the end of today’s race. “I can’t even believe it. My main goal was just to come in and make it to the final,” noted McFadden. “I am just so happy and so proud.”

The U.S. also had a very successful day on the men’s side as both Andy Soule (San Antonio, Texas) and Lt Cmdr Dan Cnossen (Topeka, Kan.) both made it to the finals of the 1km sitting cross-country final. In another close race Soule finished fifth with a time of 2:38.0 and Cnossen was sixth with a time of 2:39.9.

Chris Klebl, of Canmore, Alta., qualified for the men’s sit-skiing heats, but did not advance to the final while Quebec City’s Sebastien Fortier, and Yves Bourque (Becancour, Que.) also did not qualify for the men’s sit-skiing heats.

Russian Roman Petushkov won the race, finishing in 2:29.4 as Team Russia increased their lead at the top of the medals table with more dominant victories in cross-country skiing as they continued their medal monopoly on home snow in Sochi.

Petushkov earned his fourth gold medal of the Games with a powerful finish in the men’s 1km sitting sprint. He went head-to-head with 19-year-old compatriot Grigory Murygin but Petsuhkov stormed ahead and across the finish line in 2:29.4. Murygin followed in 2:30.6 with Ukraine’s Maksym Yarovyi ruining the chances of another podium sweep as he beat Irek Zaripov in a time of 2:31.6.

It was the fourth top-five finish for Soule, an Army veteran, who continues to impress in these Games. It was also the best finish of the Games thus far for Cnossen.

For both Soule and Cnossen who have trained together and are roommates here in Sochi it was a special moment to race alongside each other in a Paralympic final. “I was glad to see him (Cnossen) make it into the final right there with me,” stated Soule. “We have a really awesome team, I love our team.”

Sweden’s world champion Helene Ripa failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the women’s 1km standing sprint, as she finished 15th in qualifying. In the final, Russia’s Anna Milenina was crowned the Paralympic champion with a time of 4:26.9.

Ukraine’s Iluliia Batenkova finished five seconds later in 4:31.4 and Russia’s Alena Kaufman claimed bronze in 4:31.7. Canadian Paralympic rookie, Brittany Hudak of Prince Albert, Sask., did not advance past the women’s standing semifinals.

In the women’s 1km visually impaired sprint, Mikhalina Lysova and Elena Remizova completed a Russian one-two with six seconds between the pair. Lysova finished in 4:11.5 with Rezimova crossing the line in 4:17.1. Ukraine’s Oksana Shyshkova earned a bronze medal with a time of 4:24.6.

Robbi Weldon, of Thunder Bay, Ont., along with her guide Phil Wood, of Canmore, Alta., also had their day come to an end in the semifinals while Ottawa’s Margarita Gorbournova and her Regina-based guide, Andrea Bundon, did not qualify for the heat

It was an all-Russian final in the men’s 1km standing sprint featuring Vladimir Kononov, Sergey Lapkin, Alexandsr Pronkov, Vladislav Lekomtcev, Rushan Minnegulov and long-distance Paralympic champion Kirill Mikhaylov.

Mikhaylov upgraded from the sprint silver he won in this event four years ago in Vancouver as he won the race in 3:53.5 with Minnegulov (3:53.8) and Lekomtcev (3:54.6) finishing behind him.

“I’m happy because this is a load off my mind,” Mikhaylov said.

“It was a Russian final and yes, it is hard to compete against my friends.”

Full results here.

March 12, 2014 – Dario Cologna who injured his ankle in late November and had surgery to repair the damage felt pain again in the same ankle during last Saturday’s 50km CL Holmenkollen competition. As a result he withdrew from the event and now will end his season prematurely to make sure he is healthy for the start of the new training season.

“I’m really looking forward to the competition in Falun, but health comes first. With two gold medals from Sochi I can look back on a very successful season despite the bad luck with injuries,” says Cologna.

For the complete article (in Swiss) click here.

March 12, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – Canada’s Mark Arendz battled through brutal race conditions to win the bronze medal in the men’s 12.5-kilometre standing category on Day Four at the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia on Tuesday.

With rain pelting down and dense fog socked into the Laura Nordic Stadium, the 24-year-old took advantage of the weather he grew up with in Hartsville, Prince Edward Island to grab his second medal of the week. Arendz clocked a time of 30:31.0.

“To get a medal is awesome and that was the goal,” said Arendz. “There were mistakes out there both in shooting and on the course so it was not a perfect race, but anytime you are on the podium I have to be happy because this is strong field.”

In a race that puts a premium on shooting, the soft-spoken Canuck rattled off 19 of 20 shots in his four rounds on the range. The miss in this third bout of shooting sent Arendz to do one150-metre penalty loop.

“The warm up was tough today, and it was hard to see the targets early (because of the fog),” said Arendz. “It was the same conditions for everyone. I wasn’t perfect in shooting so I know there are still mistakes that need to be cleaned up.”

Arendz was in a dogfight for the gold with two of his closest rivals, Russia’s Azat Karachurin and Norway’s Nils-Erik Ulset. Karachurin also missed just one target en route to winning the gold medal with a time of 29:30.0 (0+0+0+1). Missing two shots in his final stop at the range, Ulset hammered his way around the course on the skinny skis to edge Arendz for the silver medal with a time of 30:24.6.

“I felt a little tired today, and I just didn’t have quite the snap that I had on the first day,” added Arendz, who had a lightening quick final lap. “The conditions stayed hard so I was able to put down the power I had. Everything is there. I just need to put it all together.

Earlier this week, Arendz became the first Canadian ever to win a silver medal in biathlon at the Paralympic Winter Games. Brian McKeever, guided by his brother, Arendz’s coach Robin, were the only other Canadians to win a Para-Biathlon medal when they captured the bronze in 2006.

The two-medal week now makes Arendz the most successful Canadian biathlete at the Paralympics. Recognizing the bright future ahead of him, four years ago the wide-eyed Canadian walked into his first Paralympic Stadium in 2010. His goal was take in the Paralympic experience. This time around things are different.

“This time it is strictly business,” said Arendz. “I have had four years of experience and feel that I am strong in all race distances. I want to be on the podium every time. It was not a perfect race today. I still haven’t been perfect shooting, and I don’t want to leave Sochi until I do that.”

Meanwhile American sit skier Andy Soule (San Antonio, Texas) posted the best finish of the day for Team USA, placing fifth in the 12.5-kilometer sitting biathlon after putting together another virtually mistake-free race that included a perfect 20-for-20 on the shooting range.

Russia swept the podium as Roman Petushkov furthered his winning streak by taking his third gold in as many events clocking in at 34:48.8. Petushkov’s teammates, Alexey Bychenok (35:29.7) and Grigory Murygin (35:59.6), took silver and bronze to complete an all-Russian podium.

Soule, an Army veteran, finished with a time of 37:04.7 on a cold and rainy day at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon Center where fog blanketed the area and temperatures did not rise above 35 degrees. This was in stark contrast to yesterday where most skiers raced in short-sleeves and battled with temperatures that rose to the mid-60s by early afternoon.

“These are always fun days when it’s challenging and visibility is limited along with wind and rain. It makes for interesting races, I love competing on days like this. Today went well and I am very happy with it,” said Soule.

Soule has now finished in the top-5 of every Nordic skiing event he has competed in at these Games, and is skiing some of the best races of his career. “Overall I think I have had three of the best days of racing ever in these Games,” said Soule.

In today’s race Soule once again hovered near the top of the pack, thanks in part to a perfect day in all four shooting stages. Soule has yet to miss a shot in any biathlon events in Sochi and admits that he has certainly been in a groove during each of his shooting stages thus far.

“Everything feels very solid. I am having a really good period with shooting right now and everything that we have practiced all year has come together,” noted Soule.

Soule has now posted two fifth place finishes and one fourth place finish in these Games. But despite just missing the podium in each of his three races Soule could not be happier with how he has performed thus far in the Games.

“Every day that I come out and put together a good performance is another shot for me. There are only so many things I can control and honestly these guys I am competing against are really good…I am just really happy to be pressing them,” admitted Soule.

The 36-year-old Petushkov has quickly become the host nation’s face of Sochi 2014 after having entered these Games with eight world titles, but no Paralympic titles. “Today I spoke to the guys and told them that we would share the podium,” said Petushkov. “It was a joke, but now it’s true. I don’t think that the weather is bad. It’s Russian weather, especially for biathlon. We are like soldiers and can race in any weather, it doesn’t matter.”

In addition to Soule, several other Americans competed today. Teammates Lt Cmdr Dan Cnossen (Topeka, Kan.) and retired Senior Airman Sean Halsted (Spokane, Wash.) were not far behind Soule. Both finished just outside the top ten in 11th and 12th, respectively. Army veteran Jeremy Wagner (Nanakuli, Hawaii) finished the race in 16th overall with a time of 40:51.1 and Augusto Perez (East Syracuse, N.Y.) placed 19th.

Germany’s 22-year-old Anja Wicker won her first career Paralympic gold, taking first place in the women’s 10km sitting biathlon in 32:54.4.  “We played some billiards yesterday to relax. Apparently, I wasn’t too good at it so I saved that for today,” Wicker said after the race.

“I need some time to realise what just happened. I kept looking at the results board in the stadium but I couldn’t believe that it was my name up there in first position.

“I kept thinking there has to be someone else who will finish ahead of me. To be honest, I didn’t even expect a medal today, let alone the golden one.”

Russia’s Svetlana Konovalova (33:36.7) picked up her third medal of Sochi 2014 and second silver, and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Pavlenko (34:22.6) took home the bronze. That left the race favourite, Ukraine’s seven-time biathlon world champion Olena Iurkovksa (34:49.2), in fourth place.

The women’s 10km standing title went to Russia’s Alena Kaufman (29:57.1), who now has two golds in Sochi, while Ukraine’s Oleksandara Kononova (30:33.7) took silver and another Russian, Natalia Bratiuk (30:57.6), finished in bronze-medal position.

“I can’t believe I won,” Kaufman said. “It’s my second gold medal and it’s great because it’s a home Paralympic Games. I always feel doubt, but everybody tells me I can do it. I hope I will win gold in another race.”

Ottawa’s Caroline Bisson suited up in the women’s 10-kilometre standing race and finished in 11th spot with a time of 39:53.9 (2+0+1+0).

March 11, 2014 – The world’s best cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen has signed a 4-year contract with the Swedish functional sportswear brand Craft. The freshly signed contract means that the Norwegian superstar will use Craft’s training and racing clothes as of May 2014 until the 2018 Olympics in South Korea.

”I have always paid great attention to the quality of the equipment I use,” says Marit Bjørgen. “So when choosing a new provider of training and racing clothes it was important for me to choose a partner I could trust and that has the quality required to perform optimally. It’s no accident that my choice fell on Craft. In order for me to continue winning ski races, I must work out with the best, be on the best team and have the best training and racing clothes.”

http://youtu.be/c9Iz0SfqwF0

Craft is of course very pleased with signing the world’s best cross-country skier.  ”We are very proud to have reached this agreement, and I must admit that I am very happy that Marit has shown this trust in us. That she has chosen us because of our product quality proves that we are doing a good job. At the same time, I am incredibly impressed with Marit’s professional attitude,” says Anders Corwin Bristol, a very satisfied sales and marketing director at Craft Norway.

INSPIRED BY KALLA
Over the last years Marit has trained closely together with Swedish star Charlotte Kalla, who is also part of Craft’s cross-country skiing campaign. During this time the two skiers have exchanged experiences regarding training and equipment, and there is no doubt that Marit has been influenced in her choice of a new provider.

”Charlotte has shown me a lot of the functionality of Craft’s clothes and told me how she works closely with the company. Now I also get to be part of the development and actively participate in the testing of products, which I am looking forward to,” says Marit.

“This is very exciting news for Craft.  Having both Charlotte Kalla and now Marit Bjorgen wearing Craft really speaks to the brand’s quality and functionality,” says Katie Swenson, Nordic sales manager for Craft Sportswear North America. “It’s absolutely fantastic to have such talented athletes wearing Craft.”

AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Former Olympic sprint champion Björn Lind is responsible for Craft’s cross-country collection, and he has big plans for the colla­boration with Marit. ”For us it’s important to collaborate with the best athletes in order to develop the best clothes. Elite athletes spend many hours in their training clothes and have huge demands when it comes to functionality and comfort. We use their feed­back in the development of our design, technology and quality. Marit will play an important part in this process,” says Björn Lind.

March 10, 2014 (Oslo, Norway) – We caught up with the USA’s Kikkan Randall and Sadie Bjornsen after the historic 30km CL at the Holmenkollen in Oslo for their take on the race and what it’s like to race at the temple of Nordic skiing… Randall nailed a career-best 12th while Bjornsen was stoked with 14th following bouts of sickness that have made for an up-and-down season – read more here.

Sadie Bjornsen (USA) – 14th
http://skitrax.com/audio/Sadie.Oslo30kmCL.mp3

Kikkan Randall (USA) – 12th (career-best)

How was your energy on the start line of this big race ?
KR: Energy was good coming into the race.  Being anxious always makes you feel a little tired but that was just nerves.

You’ve raced in the Holmenkolen a number of times – is it always special ?
KR: Holmenkollen is a super fun place to race.  Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, out on course knows your name, the cheering is super loud and you just get a sense that you’re racing on one of the most historic courses in ski racing.

Talk about the course and conditions today – and your skis…
KR: They seemed to have learned a few things from the men’s race yesterday and did a much more extensive job of salting for today.  Therefore the course was quite firm and all the downhills were pretty fast.  It was really nice to have such a firm track. A little tough to get strong kick in a few places but overall great conditions!  A very challenging course with some big climbs but also a fun course to race.

My skis were a little slick in the first half of the race, decent for the first 5km loop but I struggled a bit up the big climbs on the first 8km lap.  Changed skis at 13km and had better skis in the 2nd half of the race.  Thank goodness for the ski change today or those last two laps would have been brutal!

Did the race unfold as you expected ?
KR: The pace was really fast from the start as usual.  The pack strung out pretty quick.  I lost touch with a pack of skiers at the end of my 1st big lap as I was slipping up the hills and ended up skiing the next 10km trying to chase them down.  Finally got back in the pack with 5km to go and then was able to ski away from them for a bit in the last 2km.

You were 20th but moved up after changing skis at 13km and caught Sadie…tell us about this phase.
KR: See above 🙂

As the finish approached you found another gear to nail 12th – impressive.
KR: I actually had really good energy at the end of the race.  My arms were cramping in the last 10km so I was trying to keep a quick rhythm with my legs.  To me it felt like I had plenty of gas in the tank but the limitation was more technical.

Did you know you were close to a top-10 result ?
KR: No, I didn’t realize top 10 was so close.  I was definitely gaining on the two skiers just ahead of me but by the time I kicked in my last gear I ran out of room to catch them.  Fun to be so close to the top ten at least.

You earned your first CL sprint podium in Kuusamo at the start of the season – and now your best CL distance result as the season ends … that has to feel good.
KR: My classic skiing has been all over the place this season.  Some really good results and some tough ones.  It is still something I really need to work on but today’s result is encouraging.

What’s the plan going forward in Falun ?  
KR: We’re in the final stretch now, just 9 more days in Europe!!  Glad to have a few days to get set up in Falun and then RACE, RACE, RACE!!  It’s been a long winter on the road and I’m looking forward to a few more races and then heading HOME!!

March 09, 2014 – Anders Gloersen (NOR) wins the 46th Engadin Skimarathon! Riita-Liisa Roponen (FIN) victorious on the women’s side!
A perfect winter day awaited the 13.000 skiers who started the 46thEngadin Skimarathon in Maloja – blue sky and around -10°C. The elite skiers got underway at 8h30. And 1h 35min 5,2s later the race was already over – for the first one: Anders Gloersen from Norway!

As known from the Engadin Skimarathon, a big group stayed together until the end in which the leading ones were changing all the time. Only five kilomteres before the finish, Gloersen and Jean-Marc Gaillard (FRA) got a small lead which they could keep right into the finish.

Everybody was on his maximum at this time, pushing as hard as possible to close the gap and to be the first one over the finish line if possible. In the end, over 40 athletes came into the finish within one minute. After the first two, just over two seconds behind, the big group came in with Toni Livers (SUI) being the lucky one to get his foot over the finish line first, just 0.1s before Romain Vandel from France. With the luck on his side, he could gain the third place.

As the fight for the overall FIS Marathon Cup was going on during the race as well, everybody looked in which places the first men of the overall – Tom Reichelt (GER), Benoit Chauvet (FRA) and Martin Koukal (CZE) – were arriving in the finish. In the end, it got more than tight: Benoit Chauvet finished seventh, Martin Koukal tenth and Tom Reichelt 13th. This result gave the overall victory to Tom Reichelt with only five little points advantage (228 points) to Chauvet and Koukal who have both 223 points to their account.

On the women’s side, the lead was changing a couple of times as well. In the end it was last year’s winner Riita-Liisa Roponen (FIN) who was the strongest. She finished first in front of Bettina Gruber (SUI) and Katrin Zeller (GER) who were both skiing together for most of the time and only in the last metres, the Swiss could manage to put her foot over the finish line first. The women were only three and a half minutes slower than the men – a very strong performance by all!

Tom Reichelt (GER) winner of the overall FIS Marathon Cup 2013/14, the same goes for Roponen
With his 13th place today, Tom Reichelt (GER) could secure his lead in the overall FIS Marathon Cup and could gain his first overall victory in this cup. He finished the season with 228 points, only five points in front of Benoit Chauvet (FRA) and Martin Koukal (CZE) who have both 223 points. However, since Chauvet has had better results in the different races, he gains second place and Koukal third.

On the women’s side, Riita-Liisa Roponen (FIN) regains the lead in the overall FIS Marathon Cup from Antonelly Confortola (ITA) with her victory today. With three victories in three races, she wins the overall title with 300 points in front of the Italian Confortola who is in second with 236 points. Seraina Boner (SUI), today’s sixth, places third with 200 points.

The complete result list from today’s race & the actual overall FIS Marathon Cup standings here.

Statements of the top 3
1st Anders Gloersen (NOR):
I am really happy. The Olympics were an up and down for me, but afterwards I felt very good and I could get a fourth place last weekend at the World Cup in Lahti (FIN). I skied from St.Moritz to the finish yesterday to get familiar with the course, which I knew however already from rollerskiing in summer. I also looked up all the results of the last ten years and I saw that basically everytime at least ten people came in with the same time. So I knew that it would be a tight race and that I should be saving some energy for the finish sprint! I got a gap at around 5km to go but a kilometre later, Jean-Marc caught me and I was almost sure that he would be beating me in the finish as I was already pretty tired. But somehow he was tired, too I guess and so I could get over the finish line as first.

2nd Jean-Marc Gaillard (FRA):
It was my first Engadin Skimarathon and I am happy with my second place even though I was so close to winning it even. As Anders is a good sprinter and I was already pretty tired in the end, I didn’t really believe in my possibility to win in the end – maybe that was what cost me the victory today as appearantly Anders was pretty tired, too. But it was a really nice race and I enjoyed skiing in this beautiful weather. I had a broken pole right before the uphill in St.Moritz which was really a bad place for such a thing, but these things happen. Around 5km before the finish, Anders got away from the group and got a gap. I gave it a go and tried to catch him which I did soon after. Somehow the others couldn’t follow, but I knew that we weren’t allowed to drop the pace as they weren’t far away. Unfortunately it didn’t work out with the first place in the end, but I am satisfied nevertheless.

3rd Toni Livers (SUI):
I had a borken pole soon after the start and had to change 2-3 times and I lost faith. I didn’t really believe in a podium place anymore, but I had a good position when it came to the last kilometres. I knew that only from Zuoz on, the race would really start, so I prepared for that. I pushed really hard as I was eigth when we came into the finish are, then fifth and then there was an open spot, I took it and pushed into first position. It was a tight fight with Romain Vandel in the end and I am really happy that I could get my foot over the line in front of him in the end!

1st Riita-Liisa Roponen (FIN):
I am very happy. My second victory here in the Engadin and my third victory in the FIS Marathon Cup this season. Winning the cup with these three wins as well is really enormous. I had the goal today to beat my record time from last year, but this didn’t work out, but I am nevertheless satisfied with my race. It was a really hard one today, but mostly because I didn’t feel so good. I wasn’t even sure if I won when I crossed the finish line. I hope to be able to do more long distance races next season, but I will surely also take part in the World Cup if I get the chance. I am sure however, that we get more commpetition in the girls field next year and that it will be harder with more races to race to gain the overall victory again.

2nd Bettina Gruber (SUI):
I am really happy with this second place. It wasn’t an easy race today. In the end I was skiing a lot with Katrin and we tried to catch Riita-Liisa, but she was already too far gone. In the end I was able to outski Katrin in the finish sprint, so I am really satisfied. The Engadin Skimarathon is a really nice race, but also a tough one, especially for the women who are skiing with all the men around and it’s so easy to break a pole or to get a fall…

3rd Katrin Zeller (GER):
I wasn’t starting in the first start line unfortunately and I got a crash right at the start, so I lost a lot of places already there. Just getting back to the group again, somebody crashed right in front of me and I got a pole between my legs and got a big cut which hurt a lot. Again, I tried to find the other girls, I moved left when the big group when right and the other way round in order to have more space and to move faster. I really felt good and the victory would have been possible, so yes, I am disappointed. I won the Engadin Skimarathon six years ago and I really hoped to win again today as the final of my career. I will still start in the World Cup final in Falun next week, but a victory here would have been a really nice end as well. I was skiing together with Bettina in the end and I knew that she was the better sprinter. I tried to pass her, but I was squeezed in and so I finished third.

Please find pictures of the race on the Worldloppet Facebook page here.

Other Worldloppet races:
March 15: Birkebeinerrennet (NOR), 54km CT & Demino Ski Marathon (RUS), 50km FT

More information: www.worldloppet.com
Visit also the official Worldlooppet Facebook Page
Never miss an info about the world of marathon skiing – follow @WLandFISMaCup

March 09, 2014 (Stowe, Vermont) – The 2014 Junior National Cross Country Ski Championships wrapped up on March 8 with the men’s and women’s 3X3km Relay races at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont. When the dust settled Team New England emerged as the big winner of the day taking three Relay titles along with the famed Alasaka Cup.

Stratton Mountain School’s Katherine Ogden from Landgrove, VT, distinguished herself taking home three titles as she won both the FU18 classic and freestyle races along with the under 18 women’s 3X3k relay team partnered with Zoe Snow and Julia Kern. Five other skiers recorded two wins each.

Bill Koch, the sole American to win an Olympic medal in cross country skiing, was on hand to present awards on the final day of competition to the winning Relay teams:

FU16 – Brooke Dunnagan, Anna Gibson, Leah Lange – TEAM INTERMOUNTAIN
FU18 – Zoe Snow, Katherine Ogden, Julia Kern – TEAM NEW ENGLAND
FU20 – Hannah Benson, Kelsey Phinney, Heidi Halverson – TEAM NEW ENGLAND

MU16 – Max Polito, Peter Wolter, Zach Williams – TEAM INTERMOUNTAIN
MU18 – John Farr, Joe Bue, Thomas O’Hara – TEAM ALASKA
MU20 – Jack Schrupp, Jack Hegman, Cole Morgan – TEAM NEW ENGLAND

The closing ceremonies included an awards banquet with more festivities including the final leg of the “Junior Olympic Torch”. Head of the Organizing Committee, Kristina von Trapp Frame, expressed her gratitude to all.

“This championship event lived up to all our expectations.  All the races were great for the big crowds cheering their heroes on. And so many generous volunteers made this week run like clockwork.  I can’t begin to thank all the people who were a part of this wonderful experience for these deserving youngsters.  We can’t wait to see many of them in the next Olympic Games,” commented von Trapp Frame.

With files from Trapp Family Lodge.

Full results here.
Alaska Cup Points here.

March 08, 2014 (Oslo, Norway) – Sweden’s Daniel Richardsson outdueled his two rivals, Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) and Alexander Legkov (RUS), for the biggest victory of his career winning the 50km CL today in the fabled Holmenkollen in Oslo. The lanky Swede made the all-important early winning break of five skiers that was reduced to three and then two as he powered past Sundby in the stadium for a resounding gold-medal performance.

It was a frustrating day for Canada’s Alex Harvey who suffered with no grip and had to change his skis early on losing contact with the leaders and dropping to 46th. With new skis he played catch up for the remainder of the race and his valiant effort put him 14th overall.

“I had no kick for the first two laps so I was in 46th but after changing my skis things went better. I was happy to see the body was there for the remaining four laps. I was skiing a lot on my but I passed a lot of guys,” Harvey told Trax post-race. “I’m still happy with race but it could have been better.”

Full interview w/Harvey

American Noah Hoffman was near the front until the 13km mark and then fell back ending up 29th on the day. We caught up with the Hoff for his comments on his race.

“It was a tough day. My plan was to go for points whenever they were available. I was happy to take points in the first two intermediate sprints but that took a lot out of me. With the way the race played out – getting super strung out – I believe taking points early was the best strategy for me. I knew after the second intermediate sprint that I was in trouble. I just got tired.

“Conditions were very wet. The course was breaking down considerably. My A pair of skis were good. My B pair was a little slick but not bad. I went 2 laps A, 2 laps B, 2 laps A. Sundby picked up the pace up the big hill on the second lap, about 10k into the race. It was the earliest I have ever seen one of the top skiers attack a World Cup field. I did not expect things to break up as soon as they did.

“My goal for World Cup Finals is to score enough distance points to make it into the Red Group which will qualify me for the U.S. Ski Team A Team. I am close, but I need a good weekend,” added Hoffman.

By the 8km mark Legkov and Sundby were controlling at the front with Iivo Niskanen (FIN) and Lukas Bauer (CZE) there as well. Bauer opted not to change skis after the second lap (16.6km) and gained a 20s advantage. Richardsson moved into second leading the chase to catch Bauer with Legkov, Sundby and Niskanen in tow.

At 21.6km they caught Bauer and the five were clearly on a mission and would not be denied gaining over a minute on Eldar Roenning (NOR) at 25km. By the 3okm mark Bauer was showing fatigue and then at 35km it was Niskanen’s turn to buckle under the power of Legkov and Sundby as Richardsson kept tabs in third.

With 10km to go and Legkov doing most of the work the chasing pack caught Bauer and began closing on Niskanen as Legkov was now in trouble with 3.5km to go as Sundby and Richardsson were the clear favourites. The crafty Swede let Sunby lead him home as he attacked in the stadium dropping Sundby with strong double poling to solo in for the biggest triumph of his career.

Sundby settled for the silver as he locked up the World Cup crown while Legkov took home the bronze. For Richardsson it was his second World Cup win and caps an excellent second half of the season where he was on the podium in Toblach just before the Sochi games and became a gold medalist in the men’s relay in Sochi.

“The speed was very high from the beginning. The bonus sprints helped to increase the pace. I had a small crash in a downhill and lost some seconds on Martin and Alexander. Then I decided to take it easy and save some energy for the finish. I had a difficult summer but I always believed I could be winning again. It feels great to win in Holmenkollen. I hope big crowd is coming to Falun next week,” Richardsson told FIS XC.

Along with Hoffman his teammate Simi Hamilton (54th today) was also after bonus points hoping to make it to Falun. The top 50 skiers advance and Hamilton was on the cusp coming into Oslo but is now 53rd overall despite his efforts.

Devon Kershaw, who also suffered with bad skis like Harvey, used too much energy early on and DNF’d, but sits 50th overall and just made the cut for Falun. The USA’s Erik Bjornsen finished 51st on the day while Canadian Graeme Killick ran out of steam and was DNF as well.

Results here.
Overall WCup standings here.

March 08, 2014 (Pokljuka, SLO) – The USA’s Lowell Bailey led the North Americans placing a strong 10th in men’s 12.5km pursuit today at round 7 of the IBU World Cup in Pokljuka with three penalities at 1:20.5 behind winner Anton Shipulin (RUS). Bailey’s teammate Tim Burke, also with three penalties, finished in 13th at 1:20.5 behind the winner.

Yesterday’s sprint winner, Bjoern Ferry (SWE), landed on the podium in second at 8.6s behind (2 penalties) while legendary Norwegian, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen finished third at 27.4 back also with 2 penalties.

“It was pretty windy during zero today, so I spent a lot of time at the range trying to get a feel for what the gusts were doing,” said Bailey. “I felt like I had a good handle on things and the first prone went well with all the shots in the center. During the second stage I dropped two shots low, but I’m still not really sure why. The wind was definitely manageable during the stage, so I can’t really blame it on that.

Leading the Canadians was Brendan Green in 26th with five penalties at 2:59.1 behind. The USA’s Leif Nordgren finished 31st with two penalties followed by Nathan Smith (CAN) in 36th at 4:25.2 with three penalties.

“I was happy with standing and the last loop was probably the best last-loop fight I’ve had all year between Jaroslav Soukup (CZE) and myself. First I tried to drop him, than he fought back and go a little bit of a gap on me until the last few uphills when we were right together. I knew there was a big headwind and a downhill finish, so I stayed behind until the last 50 meters and then made my move. Thankfully, it was just barely good enough for a top-ten. I’m happy with the result and looking forward to tomorrow. The tracks are in great shape and it looks like great weather again tomorrow,” added Bailey.

Germany’s Arnd Peiffer took an early lead but Shipulin and Dimitry Malyshko (RUS) shot clean in the second prone and first standing to take over the lead. Ferry, who is retiring after this season, also shot well to take over second as Malyshko faltered on the final standing. Björndalen moved into third as he cleaned the final standing targets.

For Burke it was a good day at the office with strong skiing but more penalties than he hoped for.

“I was very happy with my race today, especially the feeling I had on the track,” commented Burke. “This was by far my best skiing since before the Olympics, so it felt great to feel like my normal self again. The wind was once again pretty tricky today for shooting so there were a lot of penalties from the field. Tomorrow’s mass start should be a lot of fun and I hope to carry over the good feeling from today.”

Results here.

March 08, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – Reigning world champion Mark Arendz fired his name into the history books as the first Canadian ever to win a silver medal in biathlon at the Paralympic Winter Games coming second in the men’s 7.5-kilometre standing biathlon competition.

The Hartsville, P.E.I. resident who turns 24 in a few days came a hair short of winning the gold after clocking the second fastest time at 19:14.0 (1+0) just .07 seconds behind Vladislav Lekomtce, the gold medal winner from Russia, who clocked-in at 19:13.7 (0+1) after crashing at the finish line. His teammate Azat Karachurin also missed one shot en route to winning the bronze medal with a time of 19:14.9.

“It feels absolutely great and a big relief to get on the podium right away,” beamed Arendz in the finish corral. “I fought as hard as I could, and it was such a close race at the end.”

It has been a memorable run for the rising Canadian star since making his Paralympic debut on home snow in 2010. With a room full of medals, he has twice finished second overall on the IPC World Cup biathlon standings, and last year locked up his first overall Word Cup title in the men’s standing category to cap off a season that was highlighted by one gold and two bronze medals at the 2013 World Championships.

Arendz’s coach, Robin McKeever, guided his brother and 10-time Paralympic medallist, Brian, to Canada’s only other Paralympic medal in biathlon. The brother tandem won a bronze medal in the visually impaired 7.5-kilometre sprint discipline at the 2006 Paralympics in Turin, Italy.

“It is so warm and not really winter like conditions so the course was really slowing down out there. The guys in the wax room did a great job on the skis. I will celebrate this one with them,” he added.

It was a dominant day for the Russian team on Saturday as they collected nine medals in the biathlon competition to open the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. kick-started

Roman Petushkov, a four-time world champion last season, claimed his first-ever Paralympic gold medal with a flawless performance in the men’s 7.5km sitting event. He did not miss a single shot at the range and crossed the line in 21:03.7, eight seconds ahead of Ukraine’s silver medallist Maksym Yarovyi. Japan’s Kozo Kubo finished in 21:45.6 to collect the bronze medal.

The USA’s Andrew Soule lead his team with a strong 4th-place finish just 2.9s behind Kubo. Daniel Cnossen was 14th at 3:10.1, Jeremy Wagner finished 18th at 4:25.1, Aaron Pike was 19th at 4:54.7, Travis Dodson was 20th at 6:31.5 and Sean Halsted was DSQ’d.

In the women’s 6km standing event, Alena Kaufman and Anna Milenina provided the host nation with its first one-two finish. Kaufman finished in 18:27.2 with her compatriot Melinina reaching the end of the course 30 seconds later after missing two of her shots on the range. Ukraine’s two-time Paralympian Iuliia Batenkova added a fifth bronze medal to take her total Paralympic tally to 10 medals. “Third place is normal for me, but today is just the first day of competition which is for warming up for the bigger races,” Batenkova said.

Ottawa’s Caroline Bisson placed 14th in the women’s 6km standing category. Bisson went 2+1 on the range to post a time of 27:14.8. “I was so excited to race when I woke up this morning. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to get this first one out of the way,” said Bisson of her first-ever Paralympic race. “It was such a thrill to compete today. I pushed as hard as I could to the end. Overall I am satisfied with that.”

Russia also claimed a one-two finish in the women’s 6km visually impaired biathlon through world champion Lysova and Iuliia Budaleeva. Ukraine’s Oksana Shyshkova stopped any chance of a Russian sweep as she beat Elena Remizova for third place.

Lysova was almost two minutes ahead at the 4km stage, allowing her to finish in first place without any pressure. She finished the course with guide Alexey Ivanov in 20:03.2. Budaleeva and her guide Tatiana Maltseva followed in 20:31.7. Shyshkova finished almost 20 seconds (20:49.0) behind.

Canada’s Margarita Gorbounova, also of Ottawa, and her guide, Andrea Bundon of Regina, teamed up to finish seventh. Gorbounova, who missed two shots in her first bout of shooting, stopped the clock at 26:17.8 at 6:14.6 behind the winner.

Another Russian, Nikolay Polukhin, began his quest to better his tally of six medals from the Vancouver 2010 Games by claiming a silver in the men’s 7.5km visually impaired biathlon. He was beaten by Ukrainian Vitaliy Lukyanenko who crossed the line in a time of 20:18.8.  Polukhin and his guide Andrey Tokarev followed 10 seconds later with Vasili Shaptsiaboi from Belarus claiming the bronze. In 14th was the USA’s Jacob Adicoff at 5:16.8 with fellow American Kevin Kanafin in 16th at 6:09.9 behind. Canada’s Brian McKeever did not start.

In the women’s 6km sitting event, Germany’s Andrea Eskau joined a unique list of summer and winter Paralympic gold medallists. The 42-year-old, who also won two gold medals in handcycling at London 2012, led all the way along the course to finish in an impressive time of 19:12.4 and earn her first Winter Paralympic gold. “I want to win another gold tomorrow,” Eskau said after the race.

Russia’s Svetlana Konovalova followed Eskau in 19:31.1, while Ukraine’s Vancouver 2010 gold medallist Olena Iurkovska finished eight seconds (19:39.6) behind for a bronze medal. The USA’s Oksana Masters was only 3.6s off the podium in fourth behind Iurkovska.

Results

Women’s 6km Sitting here.
Men’s 7.5km Sitting here.
Women’s 6km Standing here.
Men’s 7.5km Standing here.
Women’s 6km – Visually Impaired here.
Men’s 7.5km – Visually Impaired here.

March 07, 2014 (Stowe, Vermont) – Day Three featured the Freestyle mass start distance races as Maggie Williams (Sun Valley SEF) topped the U20 women’s race, 15km, and Fabian Stocek took another gold in the 15km U20 men’s race.

In the U18 women’s 10km contest Stratton Mountain was on the podium courtesy of Katherine Ogden while Gavin McEwen (Cambridge Sports Union) was the fastest U18 man.

Hailey Swirbul (Aspen Valley) for Team Rocky Mountain took the 5km FU16 title while APUs Hunter Wonders led the charge for Team Alaska in the U16 men’s 5km race.

Medals were presented today by Algis Shaina, 1984 Olympic Biathlon Gold Medalist for Lithuania and three-time U.S. Olympic Biathlon Team Coach, Larry Damon, four-time American Olympian and longtime Trapp Family Lodge ski instructor, and Cami Thompson Graves, Dartmouth Women’s Cross Country team Head Coach.

The competition comes to a conclusion on Saturday, with 3X3k relays, followed by an Olympic torch relay to the Stowe Mountain Resort where the final banquet and awards ceremony begin at 6pm.

Full results with splits here.

March 07, 2014 – We are pleased to announce the leaders of the SkiTrax FIS Fantasy World Cup Contest after the 2013/14 Viessmann XC FIS World Cup in Drammen, Norway where the USA’s Kikkan Randall (USA) finished 7th and locked up her third consecutive Sprint Cup globe joining an elite group of skiers who have accomplished this feat – read more here + Randall interview here. Both Alex Harvey (CAN) and Andy Newell (USA) had tough days, finishing 24th and 25th, respectively as Ola Vigen Hattestad (NOR) out-lunged teammate Paal Golberg for the win – read more here.

Team Kong Sverre takes the contest lead with 970 points, while swedish, les pitchounes and xium tie for second all with 969 points each. Team no Northug is right behind with 968 points followed by the the A team with 967 points – the grand prize is truly up for grabs.

View the full contest standings after Drammen HERE.

These are the only FIS Fantasy Nordic contests of their kind worldwide so don’t miss your chance to enjoy fabulous top level xc ski racing and the chance to win fabulous prizes.

Thanks to all of our great sponsors, including Fischer, Nipika Mountain Resort, Rudy Project, Salomon, Marwe, Halti, Bjorn Daehlie, Exer-Genie, Madshus, Fresh Air Experience, High Peaks Cyclery, and Buff.

SkiTrax Fantasy FIS World Cup 2013/14 Contest Prizes
* 1st Prize – Fischer 13/14 Speedmax Skate or Classic Skis, Xcelerator Bindings, Carbonlite Poles (value $1,200)
* 2nd Prize – Nipika Mountain Resort – 2 nights lodging in fully equipped cabin incl. all amenities (value $675)
* 3rd Prize – Rudy Project Sunglasses For Sport Agon + For Life Spinhawk (value $450)
* 4th Prize – Salomon S-Lab Skate or Classic boots ($450sk/$299cl)
* 5th Prize – Marwe 610c Roller Skis (value $349)
* 6th Prize – Halti Nokka XC Outfit (value $325)
* 7th Prize – Bjorn Daehlie XC Ski Suit (value $300)
* 8th Prize – Exer-Genie XC Trainer (value $229)
* 9th Prize –Madshus K it w/Ski Bag, Waist Belt Bag, Headware (value $130)
* 10th Prize – Fresh Air Experience or High Peaks Cyclery Gift Certificate (value $100)
* WCup Break – Buff Headware to top 3 contest leaders before the Tour de Ski (value $25)

SkiTrax is North America’s leading Nordic skiing publication and the official magazine of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) and Cross Country Canada (CCC).

SkiTrax FIS Fantasy World Cup Contest 2013-14 – Standings after Drammen

March 07, 2014 (Anchorage, Alaska) – Please join us on Thursday, March 20th from 6-8:00p.m. at the APU Grant Hall Conoco Phillips Gallery to help give our four 2014 Olympians and Coach Erik Flora a very warm welcome back to Alaska!

We will gather in the Theatre to celebrate our Olympians followed by a question and answer session with all of them

Food and drink will be provided during the reception.

All athletes will be available for an autograph session,

Let’s show our Olympians how proud we are of them!

March 06, 2014 (Presque Isle, ME) – Team Canada’s Alex Dupuis, Aidan Millar and Jules Burnotte scored a stunning historic silver in the Youth Youth Men’s 3×7.5km Relay today at 2014 Youth/Junior World Champrionships in Presque, Isle, Maine.

The Canadians were 2:10.2 behind with one penalty and 10 spare rounds as Russia took the gold with a time of 59:18.9 with two penalties and 9 spare rounds. Finland was third at 2:13.9 suffering 2 penalties and 14 spare rounds for the bronze.

Team USA’s Paul Everett, Sean Doherty and Brian Halligan finished a solid 5th with two penalties and 14 spare rounds at 2:34.2 behind the winners.

Russia took an early lead with Canada in second at about 30s. US star Doherty rallied his team back to third with strong shooting and then into second place as Canada’s Millar faltered on the range. On the final leg as Russia’s Viktor Plitcev solidified their gold, Canada’s Burnotte outpaced his American rival Halligan while Finland in third became a threat. Burnotte held on to deliver the silver with Finland taking the bronze as the USA settled for 5th.

Full results here.

In the youth women’s 3x6km Relay the USA’s Anna Kubek, Madeleine Grace Phaneuf and Mikaela Paluszek finished a solid 9th at 4:56.5 behind with three penalities using 9 spare rounds. Canada’s Danielle Vrielink, Emily Dickson and Leilani Tam Von Burg placed 10th at 5:53.9 with no penalities while using 10 spare rounds.

The gold went to France with a time of 59:32.8 and no penalities while using only four spare rounds, with Russia in second at 10.0s (0+7), and Austria taking third at 32.7s (0+9).

By the first exchange it was Lithuania, Russia and France showing their teeth but things changed dramatically for France when Julia Simon used only one spare round to launch her team into first with a 26-second lead by the final exchange. Phaneuf put the USA in contention at fourth with stellar shooting but on the final leg Paluszek faltered on the range and they ended up 9th as France took the gold over Russia with Austria third as 56 seconds back. Canada finished 10th.

Racing concludes in Presque Isle tomorrow with the junior men and women’s relays.

Results here.

March 06, 2014 (Miday, Utah) – Anja Gruber of Vermont and Rune Oedegaard of Colorado defended their NCAA titles in the women’s and men’s nordic classic races, respectively, on Thursday at Soldier Hollow.

Denver, a 21-time national champion, had a strong showing with all six men’s and women’s skiers finishing in the top 15 and five placing in the top 10. That allowed the Pioneers to overtake first-day leader Utah in the team points race. Denver, which scored 169 points on Thursday, has built a 299-248 lead over Utah. Colorado is a close third with 240.5 points and New Mexico is in fourth place with 231 points with two days of competition remaining.

It was an overcast day with temperatures in the high 30’s at race time. However, with the forecast calling for rain and temperatures climbing into the low 50’s by early afternoon, the start time of the men’s race was moved up 40 minutes to 10:20 a.m. as the final women’s competitors were still on the course.

Gruber, a senior from Leutkrich, Germany, took the women’s 5K classic in 13:38.4. It wasn’t the first time she had competed at Solider Hollow this year. Gruber placed fourth in the 10K classic at the 2014 U.S. Cross Country Championships in January.
Gruber finished nearly nine seconds ahead of Sylvia Nordskar of Denver, who clocked in at 13:47.7. Eva Severrus of New Mexico finished third in 14:01.0.

In addition to Nordskar’s second-place effort, Denver had Makalya Cappel (seventh) and Silje Benum (13th) finish in the top 15 to earn 80 points.

Oedegaard, a junior from Molde, Norway, defended his title as well in the men’s 10K classic, completing the course in 24:34.5. It was Oedegaard’s 13th career win to set the new Colorado nordic skiing record.

Denver had all three of its racers finish in the top eight, led by runner-up Pierre Guedon (24:45.8). Moritz Madlener and Trygve Markset finished fifth and eighth, respectively, for the Pioneers as they accumulated 89 points.

Utah’s Niklas Persson finished third in 25:00.9. However, none of his men’s teammates placed in the top 25. On the women’s side for the Utes, Anna Svendson was eighth (14:24.8) and Sloan Storey placed ninth (14:26.0).

Utah accumulated a combined 83 points in the men’s and women’s classic events, allowing them to stay in second place. Colorado, the defending national champion, closed the gap on the Utes for second place with 113 points.

The 2014 NCAA Skiing Championships continue Friday with the men’s and women’s slalom races at Park City Mountain Resort. The scheduled start time is 9:00 a.m. MT

Results here

Photos courtesy of NNF and Bert Boyer in support of US skiers
The mission of the National Nordic Foundation (NNF) is to provide support for the athlete development pipeline of US Cross Country and Nordic Combined skiing. The NNF accomplishes this development goal through raising funds and distribution to our “Pillar Projects” that serve the next generation of athletes who represent the United States on the world stage. To donate or for more information about NNF Pillar Projects, click here.

March 06, 2014 (Drammen, Norway) – We caught up with American XC skiing sensation Kikkan Randall after her Sprint CL race in Drammen, following the historic news for the US star that she would win her third consecutive FIS Sprint World Cup overall title.

Randall finished seventh in the Drammen sprint and she has a 54-point lead over Germany’s Denise Herrmann in the standings with just one mini-tour sprint remaining and only a maximum of 50 points up for grabs. The window for Randall to clinch the title opened when Herrmann, her closest rival, failed to advance to the semi-finals in Drammen.

The Alaska skier is now in an elite club as only two athletes have managed to win the globe this many times – Bente Skari has five wins in a row 1998-2002, and Bjoergen won four straight sprint World Cups from 2003-2006.

Interview w/Kikkan Randall in Drammen

March 06, 2014 (Presque Isle, ME) – Skies were clear, but the start of the junior competitions were delayed by one hour due to an extremely cold weather system hitting the area. Wind gusts also affected the racers on their shooting stages.

In the 12.5km junior women’s race, Luise Kummer (GER) won with a time of 36:24, shooting clean for the second consecutive race and adding gold to her medal collection after snagging silver in Sunday’s pursuit event. Austria’s Lisa Hauser (AUT) took home the silver medal, accumulating only one penalty to finish 19.4s back from Kummer. Bronze medalist Uliana Kaisheva (RUS) also logged just one penalty and trailed the leader by 57.4s.

Canadians Sarah Beaudry (CAN) and Julia Ransom (CAN) had strong races, finishing sixth and seventh, respectively. Beaudry missed three shots to finish 2:59.3 back, while Ransom racked up two penalties to stop the clock 3:11.4 after the winner. Fellow Canuck Erin Yungsblut (CAN) finished 36th, while USA’s Kelsey Dickinson (USA) and teammate Tara Geraghty-Moats (USA) were 44th.

Women’s results here.

Junior Men
With the junior women’s race delayed, the men’s start was also moved back. The gusty winds and cold temperatures, along with the logistical changes, did not faze Norway’s Tore Leren (NOR). He went on to win 15km individual event with a time of 42:29.3, accumulating two shooting penalties. Canada’s Christian Gow (CAN) raced well to finish sixth, 1:15.8 behind the winner with only a single missed shot.

Aristide Begue (FRA) shot clean to finish a mere one second behind Loren for the silver medal, while his teammate Dany Chavoutier (FRA) suffered only one penalty and took home the bronze, trailing by 43.9s.

In other North American results, Canuck Carsen Campbell (CAN) placed 19th, USA’s Tyler Mark Gustafson (USA) was 48th, Jakob Ellingson (USA) 53rd, and Canadian Brett Davie (CAN) finished 55th. USA’s Jacob Dalberg (USA) and Canada’s Stuart Harding (CAN) did not finish.

Men’s results here.

March 05, 2014 (Drammen, Norway) – Ola Vigen Hattestad (NOR) picked up another win in Drammen today in the men’s FIS World Cup 1.3km CL sprints, directly after teammate Maika Caspersen Falla (NOR) scored victory in the women’s event and now leads the Sprint Cup standings.

Paal Golberg (NOR) finished second, followed by Mailcol Rastelli (ITA) in third, while North Americans Alex Harvey (CAN) and Andy Newell (USA) had tough days, finishing 24th and 25th, respectively.

In the men’s qualifications, Alexander Panzhinskiy (RUS) led a Russian sweep ahead of second place, Anton Gafarov (RUS), and third place qualifier, Nikita Kriukov (RUS). Newell qualified at the top North American in 22nd, with Harvey squeaking through in 28th.

Simi Hamilton (USA), Len Valjas (CAN), Erik Bjornsen (USA), Devon Kershaw (CAN), Reese Hanneman (USA), and Sylvan Ellefsen (USA) did not advance.

In quarter final heat number four, Newell skied sixth for most of the race. At one point, he moved up one spot into fifth, but fell back again at the finish to wind up sixth.

“Conditions were pretty good out there today, it was warm and wet but they had salted the course so it set up pretty firm. This made for a lot of double poling and out of the track skiing which is typical for Drammen. I DP’d the qualification and felt pretty good the the times were incredibly tight,” said Newell post-race.

“In the heats I made the decision to use wax in order to kick past the competition on the final 50 meters but it didn’t work out for me. I think I might have used too much energy trying to keep up the with the double-polers and just didn’t have it in the stretch.

“It’s disappointing since this sprint is usually one of my best. We haven’t had a lot of practice recently with classic sprinting so I think things were just a little off with me today. I’ll probably be competing in the 50km this weekend and then getting ready for the World Cup final.

Harvey was up next in heat five, choosing to go without wax. So did Sweden’s Emil Joensson (SWE), who led from the start. Harvey moved from sixth spot into fifth, then sped to third on the long downhill. Coming into the finishing straight, Joennson had the lead and Harvey made a move on the outside, but without wax, he was passed and ended up fifth. Harvey sits 9th in the World Cup sprint ranking and 6th on the overall World Cup standings.

In the semi final, Goldberg and Hattestad went 1-2 to advance to final, with Rastelli making it through as lucky loser. Heat number two of the semi’s saw a big upset as Norway’s Finn Haagen Krogh (NOR) collided with teammate Eirik Brandsdal at the start, with both going down. Brandsdal, who was leading the Sprint Cup coming into Drammen was now in trouble. Joensson won the heat, with Matias Strandvall (FIN) finishing second.

Joensson led out the final heat, followed by Rastelli in second with Hattestad third. The Swede ceded the lead to Goldberg, with Hattestad taking second, and Rastelli third. Joensson’s fast skis helped him move back up into second on the downhill, followed by Strandvall in third, and eventual winner Hattestad fourth.

Suddenly, Joensson and Strandvall collided and crashed in a corner, taking both of them out. Hattestad managed to avoid the carnage and moved around to chase down Goldberg. In the finishing straight, the two Norwegians were neck and neck, with Hattestad taking the win by a boot length with his desperate final lunge and now leads the Sprint Cup with one race left as Brandsdal had one final chance to take back the leader’s jersey in Stockholm, Sweden.

Men’s qualifications here.
Men’s final results here.

March 05, 2014 (Stockholm, Sweden) – The Swedish investigative TV program “Uppdrag Granskning” (Mission Review) has analyzed thousands of blood tests from professional cross-country skiers taken over the past decade and shown this analysis to experts. The analysis apparently compared hematocrit (HTC), hemoglobin (HB), and reticulocyte (RET) levels; various measures of red blood cells counts.

“I don’t think any of these competitions were clean,” remarked noted American researcher Don Catlin when he looked at the analysis. Catlin headed the anti-doping laboratory at Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Games. Catlin also admits that, despite his lab’s best efforts, “there were a number of athletes who managed to compete while doped.”

Italian expert, Alessandro Donati, looked at variations in HB levels and came to a similar conclusion: “So the difference is too high. The probability of doping is very very, very high”

In Salt Lake, several skiers had high counts of HG in their blood; levels that were just within the permitted limits. The skiers were from Finland, Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Switzerland, Norway, Germany and Austria.

Uppdrag Granskning spoke to Norway’s Anders Aukland, who won gold in 2002.  He was among those who returned the highest levels of HG at Salt Lake City, but Aukland was evasive when speaking to the journalists about his HG levels, referring them instead to experts like “medical specialists, such as doctors and others…”

Also evasive was Estonian Jaak Mae, a bronze medallist in the 15km classic style race at Salt Lake City and today Secretary General of the Estonian ski Association.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) is taking the figures seriously, however. On the basis of these analyses, they have compiled a list of skiers with questionable blood profiles.

Note: High HG and HTC levels can be indicative of doping with banned red blood cell boosters such as erythropoietin (EPO). This was the case of Canadian rider Genevieve Jeanson who rode for many years without failing a doping test, but showed an abnormally high HTC level at the UCI Hamilton World Championships in 2003. Jeanson eventually tested positive for EPO in 2005 and admitted in 2007 to having doped with EPO “almost all her career,” which began in 1999.

Read the article on Uppdrag Granskning here.

March 03, 2014 (Presque Isle, ME) – Sean Doherty (USA) won his second gold medal of the 2014 IBU Junior World Championships on Sunday in the youth men’s 10-kilometer pursuit. Posting a time of 28:51.8/+3, Doherty finished 1:03.6 minutes ahead of Marco Gross (GER) in second (29:55.4/+3). Dmitrii Shamaev (RUS) was third (30:54.5/+4).

“I was a little nervous starting with bib #1, but after the first prone stage I was feeling pretty confident and in control of both skiing and shooting,” said Doherty. “It all came together for me today and I am incredibly happy with my result.” At the 2013 Junior World Championships, Doherty won three medals – gold (pursuit), silver (individual, sprint).

Aidan Millar (CAN) was the top Canadian finisher in 23rd. In other North American results, Brian Halligan (USA) finished 31st, Jules Burnotte (CAN) 33rd, Alex Dupuis (CAN) 37th, Kamran Muneer Husain (USA) 39th, and Pearce Hanna (CAN) 41st,

Women’s Youth 7.5km Pursuit
Daniela Vrielink (CAN) was the top North American finisher in the youth women’s 7.5k pursuit finishing in 15th, followed by USA’s Anna Kubek in 18th with a time of 26:23.6/+4. Canada’s Emily Dickson (CAN) placed 20th, Madeleine Phaneuf (USA) 24th, Leilani Tam Von Burg (CAN) 37th, Megan Bankes (CAN) 43rd, Siena Ellingson (USA) 44th, and Mikaela Paluszek (USA) was 45th.

Racing continues on Tuesday in Presque Isle with the youth men and women’s individual beginning at 10am (ET). Follow results live here.

Junior Women’s 10k pursuit results here
Junior Men’s 12.5k pursuit results here

March 03, 2014 (Lahti, Finland) – Marit Bjoergen’s (NOR) spectacular form continued after her successful Winter Olympic Games in Sochi as she sped to the 10km FR interval start win in Lahti. Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla (SWE) fine forme also continued as she took second place, trailing the leader by 26.9s. Kalla bested Therese Johaug (NOR), who settled for third place at 27.6s off of the winning time. Kikkan Randall (USA) was the top North American in 21st place.

We caught up with Randall after her race to get a read on how she felt the day after her spectacular sprint victory on the previous day. “My legs were definitely achy after the hard effort yesterday but I woke up feeling energetic and excited to race again,” said Randall.

Although Randall’s energy and motivation were high, things didn’t go exactly how she would have liked. “I wanted to be a little faster and higher up in the results than I finished today. I started aggressive like I wanted to, struggled in the middle when my legs got tired but had a good last 2km following Marit [Bjoergen],” commented Randall.

Johaug was disappointed, as she led most of the race, losing time in the final kilometres, and fell to third place at the finish. The feisty Norwegian still leads the World Cup overall standings with 1,142 points. Bjoergen, who sits second with 1,042 points, recognizes she needs to dig deep to surpass her young teammate in order to attain the crystal globe at the end of the season.

Randall liked the track in Lahti, but mentioned the conditions made things even tougher for the race: “It’s a fun course to race. Basically two different 2.5km loops linked together. A couple big climbs but good recovery in between. Conditions were similar to yesterday with loose sugary snow over ice. During the women’s race, we had the added challenge of new falling snow which slowed it down quite a bit.”

In other North American results, Liz Stephen (USA) finished 32nd, Holly Brooks (USA) 44th, Alysson Marshall (CAN) 62nd, Heidi Widmer (CAN) 63rd, Cendrine Brown (CAN) 68th, Andrea Dupont (CAN) 71st, and Jennie Bender (USA) 76th.

March 03, 2014 (Mora, Sweden) – John Kristian Dahl (NOR) won Vasaloppet 2014, and thus became the fourth Norwegian man to win the race. Laila Kveli, also from Norway, repeated her last year’s victory by again winning the ladies’ class.

Earlier Norwegian winners of the Vasaloppet gents’ class are Ole Elefsaeter 1971, Anders Aukland 2004 and Jörgen Aukland 2008 and 2013.

14,611 (preliminary figure) of the 15,800 registered entries were on the start line for the 90th Vasaloppet.

After passing Risberg, Espen Harald Bjerke drew away from the leading group on the way to Evertsberg. At the Hill Prize in Evertsberg, Bjerke’s lead over the following group was 1.49.

After 3 hours and 44 minutes skiing, Bjerke was caught up by Audun Laugaland, the Norwegian who had broken away from the big following group by a few seconds.

Passing Eldris, with nine kilometres left, Laugaland had a lead of 35 seconds.  But he was the hunted prey for the bigger group where John Kristian Dahl chased best together with his team-mate Johan Kjölstad and the three times Vasaloppet winner Jörgen Brink.

Dahl was strongest towards the finish and won by three seconds before Kjölstad and five before Brink. “I made a real push and used my last reserves and got a few metres,” said Dahl. “Conditions were tough today. I tested roughed up skis before the start, but chose to race with smooth skis. I was pretty worn out around 60-70 kilometres, but so were we all.”

“I was aiming to win but it wasn’t quite enough. They’re strong, these boys in yellow,” said third placed Jörgen Brink, indicating Dahl and Kjölstad’s team kit!

Brink was laid down with a fever earlier in the week, but recovered enough to start. “Had a sort of dizziness during the week, everything wheeling around in my head, and I was in bed until Thursday. But I picked up and skied a bit yesterday. Today it felt very, very much better than I’d expected,” said Brink.

The Women’s Race
At the beginning, Britta Johansson Norgren and Laila Kveli took turns in the lead with Annika Löfström in third place. Johansson Norgren took the Hill Prize in Evertsberg, eight seconds before Kveli. Then the Norwegian took over the lead. In Oxberg, Kveli led by eleven seconds before Johansson Norgren and 28 seconds before Löfström. Laila increased her lead and at Hökberg it had grown to 1.10 before Annika and Britta who then were together.

Towards the end Britta got nearer, having broken away from her team-mate Löfström. But this was nothing that Laila knew about. “After Evertsberg I had just gone “all in” all the way so I’m very happy that I made it,” says Kveli.

Kveli is the first female skier to win Vasaloppet without grip wax. “I tried not to drive too hard on the start hill. Then I had good skis, good control over myself and the distance,” says the Norwegian.

Britta Johansson Norgren chose roughed skis. “I think that was best for me today. The skis went a little heavier where there was fresh snow. But I felt some stomach cramp around Evertsberg. It would probably have been tough for me to pole the whole distance. I’ve done all I could today, so I’m very pleased about that,” says Johansson Norgren.

Watch Vasaloppet 2014 again
Wherever you are in the world, watch the whole Vasaloppet 2014 race again, with English commentary at Swix Ski Classics Live Center www.swixskiclassics.com

Vasaloppet 2015 Registration
Entry registration to the 91st Vasaloppet, which will be held on March 8, 2015, and the other races in Vasaloppet’s winter week 2015, opens on Sunday, March 16 at 09:00, on vasaloppet.se

Results

Men
1. John Kristian Dahl (NOR) 4.14.33
2. Johan Kjölstad (NOR) 4.14.36
3. Jörgen Brink (SWE) 4.14.38
4. Audun Laugaland (NOR) 4.14.42
5. Stanislav Rezac (CZE) 4.15.50
6. Andreas Nygaard (NOR) 4.14.50
7. Daniel Tynell (SWE) 4.14.52
8. Stian Hoelgaard (NOR) 4.14.52
9. Oskar Svärd (SWE) 4.14.52
10. Christoffer Callesen (NOR) 4.14.52

Women
1. Laila Kveli (NOR) 4.31.57
2. Britta Johansson Norgren (SWE) 4.33.06
3. Annika Löfström (SWE) 4.33.48
4. Susanne Nyström (SWE) 4.37.22
5. Seraina Boner (SUI) 4.40.49
6. Liv Inger Bjerkreim Nilsen (NOR) 4.41.10
7. Kristina Roberto (SWE) 4.42.24
8. Maria Gräfnings (SWE) 4.43.15
9. Maria Nordström (SWE) 4.44.05
10. Nina Lintzén (SWE) 4.44.12

Full results here.

March 02, 2014 (Lahti, Finland) – Canada’s Alex Harvey was a solid 8th in the men’s 15km FR World Cup interval start at the Lahti Ski Games in Finland on Sunday as Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) took the win and extended his overall World Cup lead. Sweden’s Daniel Richardsson claimed second at 10.7s behind while Olympic 50-km champ Alexander Legkov (RUS) was third at 11.2s behind.

“I wasn’t expecting much because the course has lots of steep uphills and it was skating so it isn’t the course that suits me best,” said Harvey. “I am happy with the way I skied. I have been physically really tired after the Olympics and the travel. But the shape is still there and I just wanted to come here and restart the machine so to have two really good results is a bonus.”

Sundby led at all time checks and stayed strong to the finish. Legkov skied in second at all time checks and Richardsson was third, but at the finish they traded places by a mere 0.5 seconds with Richardsson taking second place.

The top US skier was Noah Hoffman in 24th followed by Canada’s Ivan Babikov in 29th, Graham Nishikawa (Can) in 41st, fellow Canuck Devon Kershaw in 43rd, Erik Bjornsen (USA) in 51st, Michael Somppi (Can) in 58th, Reese Hanneman (USA) in 73rd,  Sylvan Ellefson (USA) 79th, Kevin Sandau 80th with Raphael Couturier in 85th.

Sitting sixth overall on the World Cup standings, Harvey is focused on a solid finish to a bittersweet season. “We obviously didn’t meet our expectations at the Olympics, but there are still a lot of things to be happy about this year. I’m still fighting for good position on the World Cup so mentally I was really looking forward to this weekend and I really want to finish the season strong,” added Harvey.

Harvey Post-race Interview

Results here.

March 02, 2014 (Rasnov, Romania) – In her first World Cup event after debuting her sport in the Olympic Winter Games, Jessica Jerome leaped to a 2nd-place finish Sunday at the brand new ski jump facility in Rasnov, Romania.

It was Jerome’s second World Cup podium finish in two years. She improved Sunday after a 15th-place finish on Saturday in challenging wind conditions.

“I am happy. Technically speaking, my jumping has been good. I’ve made good progress, but it just hasn’t all lined up for me until today (Sunday),” said Jerome, who put up jumps of 89 and 90.5 meters to snag the podium spot.

Japan’s Sara Takanashi won both Rasnov events, increasing her season total to 12 wins and further solidifying the overall World Cup title.

“The conditions were very inconsistent both days and jumpers were either going to be unlucky or lucky. I was unlucky Saturday,” Jerome said. “Fortunately today I was somewhere in the middle of the luck. I got the rhythm of the hill better (Sunday) and I was able to put in two good jumps.”

U.S. teammate Lindsey Van did not compete in Rasnov after suffering possible ligament damage to her left knee during official training on Friday. Van is headed home to Utah for further medical evaluation. Jerome and Van were the only Americans slated to compete in the final four World Cup events of the season.

Jerome now heads to Lillehammer, Norway, for training and then will compete in the large hill event in Oslo on March 8. Oslo is the first of two large hill events set for women this season.

“I’m very excited for large hills. The big hills are just more fun,” Jerome said.

Sunday, March 2, 2014 Normal Hill women’s event, HS 100 Full Results

Saturday, March 1, 2014 Normal Hill women’s event, HS 100 results here.

February 27, 2014 – The fifth athlete to test positive for a banned substance at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games, Austrian cross-country skier Johannes Dürr (Aut), admitted to using the blood booster EPO for more than a year, according to austriantimes.at.

Dürr cited mounting pressure due to financial and family stress and expectations to perform as reasons for choosing to start using EPO in May 2013, reported the article.

The Austrian skier finished eighth in the Skiathlon on February 9.

Dürr apologized for his actions and promised to cooperate with the ensuing criminal investigation and anti-doping organization.

Read the full article here.

February 27, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – It’s my last day here, most of the Olympic scene has packed up and is already gone. The torch extinguished the staff and volunteers work on to prepare for the upcoming Paralympic Games. The crowds at the venues and at the medals plaza where I worked have grown smaller. Most of my friends have gone.

Yet the last few days have given me some precious time to decompress a bit, catch up on much need sleep, and to wind down emotionally from the “high” of the OWG, for this Olympic junkie. I have just announced at my 8th Games and I love the Olympic movement. I believe in its essence for good will and peace in the world. Just perhaps, we need this now more than ever.

This is not a story about skiing, or perhaps even of sport, except in the broadest sense of the word. What I experienced throughout the entire Olympic Games here in Sochi gave me both great promise and hope, on so many levels.

This being the XXII Olympic Games, of course there are the facts. A total of 99 gold medals were won by the champions. There were 80 nations and a whopping 2,797 athletes that took part. This was Russia’s first-ever Olympic Winter Games, and it delivered 17 days of marvelous sport with drama, upset wins, disappointment for some, heartaches and heart breaks, thrilling moments, powerful displays of sportsmanship and the array of human emotion. Stories of young, ambitious up-and-coming wunderkinds, and of veterans still in peak form, all engaged in a good fight.

Most of it was truly ennobling to witness and touched the heart.

That the sheer size of the modern Games can be successfully navigated is a tribute to the power of the human will, modern technology, hard working and dedicated staff and volunteers and a near endless supply of money to finance these venues and dreams.

Despite the fact that the Winter Games are much smaller than the Summer Games, they remain a massive undertaking by every standard. Add in the massive costs and manpower involved in securing the modern Olympics and it’s mind boggling when you realize the logistics of this huge, complex machine with many moving parts. It’s almost too big to get your arms around it all, and yet I try to focus on my little piece of the puzzle. In a movement this large, you just gotta have faith in others.

The Sochi Games were staged in a place that was called too warm by many; with too little snow; yet they did it anyway. The venues were beautiful and I visited most of them… state of the art facilities – that if they continue to be utilized will be a real gift to generations of Russian youth for years to come.

The long-term success of these venues is dependent on their continued use. Legacy programs are essential to extract the best after use of the venues. Vancouver, Salt Lake City, Calgary and Lake Placid are just a few examples of legacy programs that have kept their venues vibrant, and the Olympic spirit alive in North America.

I get to work as a PA announcer with a host of volunteers and have always found that to be a very enriching experience at every Olympics. People, young and old, who work long hours, endure the weather outside, and whose pride of being involved and playing a role in the OWG is simply essential to the Games success. There were more than 25,000 volunteers, who were helpful, supportive, kind, and even where there were language barriers remained bright eyed with enthusiasm.

As a PA announcer I try and root for every athlete, regardless of country, and feel a special obligation to try and get the name pronounced right and some bio information on each athlete. This is about the athletes  and I had a lot of volunteer help and couldn’t have done it without their tireless support helping with bios, research, getting food, all manner of tasks.

I don’t know them all by name, but I will never forget their faces and for making us feel so much at home. The sad part is I know – other than perhaps on Facebook – I won’t see most of them again. That’s sad… as Haruki Murakami wrote in Kafka on the Shore….”I’ll never see them again. I know that. And they know that, and knowing this we say farewell.”

These really were splendid Games. Like others I too was worried about host of things and potential problems prior to leaving my home. But I’m sure glad I came, and sure happy to have met new friends who now feel great pride in what has been accomplished and what is about to happen with the upcoming Paralympics.

The next Games will be in the Korean alps, in the mountains of Pyeongchang. Four years seems far away at the moment, but being on the other side of 60, I know that these months and years shall pass by quickly. I have been given a great gift with the privilege to play a small role in this movement. Will I be around in 2018…? Of course I hope to be yet have no answers as to what the future will bring.

For the wonderful time spent here over the last month I am bringing home the very best memories and parts to ponder and. Thank you Sochi, thank you friends… as we begin to express our gratitude there is so much to be thankful for.

As one of my favorite poets, John Keats once wrote…”I have so much of you in my heart.”

Thank you Sochi, for these unforgettable days.

February 24, 2014  (Krasnaya Polyana, Russia) – It was Russia’s day to shine as Alexander Legkov lead a Russian sweep in the men’s 50km FR, the final cross-country event of the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in front of adoring fans who went wild. Legkov led a four-way sprint to the line, ahead of compatriots Maxim Vylegzhanin and Ilia Chernousov who raced to a photo finish, snatching the bronze from Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway.

Alex Harvey was the top Canadian, finishing in 19th place at 45s behind the gold. Ivan Babikov aka, ‘the Bulldog’, racing his third Olympics had his best 50km result finishing directly behind Harvey in 20th.

The day also belonged to American Noah Hoffman, who demonstrated his skiing panache as he mixed it up with the stars skiing a tremendous race at the front for the first 45km. The Hoff marked every move but as the pace heated up over the final 5km he was unable to respond and ended his stellar day in 26th.

“It was challenging for sure. My skis were awesome, so I owe a ton to my wax techs,” said Hoffman. “I was right where I wanted to be for 45k and definitely started to suffer when we all went into the ski exchange. That’s when the pace seemed to heat up and things strung out. That was at 30k, but I stayed in there and got back right where I wanted to be. I just didn’t have it in the last three or four kilometres, especially up the last hill.”

It was also a career-best day for Graeme Killick skiing into 28th, who forever will be able to say he skied in behind Swiss star, Dario Colgana, in 27th, while Killick’s teammate Jesse Cockney, finished 56th.

Non-starters today were Devon Kershaw (CAN) and Torin Koos (USA). Kershaw who was fifth in 50km at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics tweeted that his “lungs and health aren’t good enough after being sick for a week to start the 50km.”

Also not starting was Austrian Johannes Duerr, who tested positive for EPO, tarnishing the Austrian Ski Association reputation. Duerr, who was third overall at this year’s Tour de Ski, was eighth in the men’s Skiathlon at the Sochi Olympics.

The 50km race began predictably in a large pack, increasing in pace with each lap. Defending Olympic champion Peter Northug surprisingly was not a factor in today’s race sitting in the mid 20s for most of the race and ended up 18th. Nordic World Champion  Sweden’s, Johan Olsson, made a move at the 10km mark setting a strong early pace but fell back and ended up 9th.

Hoffman placed himself at the front of the pack by the 8km mark and was clearly on a mission and at the 18km mark, Anders Soedergren moved to the front keeping Sweden in the spotlight at the front, while the big favourites remained in close proximity. The Finland’s Lari Lehtonen took over as Hoffman kept pace.

Suddenly Legkov had a gap on the field at the 30km mark, sprinting ahead, but his intentions were soon made clear as he headed in to change his skis. The top skiers followed the trend taking the opportunity to change as did Harvey and Babikov who had great skis today being able to gain time on the downhills.

“In the first half of the race , Ivan and I had the best skis in the group. The waxers  really made up for the first half of the  championships,” said Harvey. “It helped us save a lot of energy.”

The exchange allowed for Finland’s Matti Heikkinen, to gain a 22s-lead as he did not change skis. A large chase group formed including pre-race favourites Cologna, Legkov, Roland Clara (Ita), Lukas Bauer (Cze) and others vying for a podium spot.

With Hoffman still hanging in, Heikkinen was reeled at the 40km mark as Legkov pushed the pace along with France’s Robin Duvillard. Harvey, Babikov and Northug did not look as strong as the question of how much was left in the tank would soon be answered.

Soedergren made another last ditch attempt at 45km to get away but Legkov was wary and had his own agenda as he Vylegzhanin, Duvillard and Sundby were close by. With the pace quickening Hoffman backed off as a lead group of 20-strong skiers formed and it still looked like it could be anyone’s race.

With just 2km to go, fate hit Cologna as he suddenly pulled off to the side with a broken ski, while Harvey, who had tripped over a discarded pole, was able to rejoin the group. A defeated Cologna switched his ski and made it to the finish in 27th.

Harvey explained the scenario, “Well, there’s the big downhill slope, then a small mostly-flat uphill stretch, Noah Hoffman broke his pole there, and he changed his pole in the zone – there’s a zone where there are white poles to grab, so he stuck his pole there, which is what everyone does, but I tripped on one of the white poles and fell on my butt. I lost about 10 seconds and came back to the group eventually. I saw Cologna break his ski right before the big uphill, that’s when I rejoined the group.”

“At the big uphill I was tired from catching up with the group. I knew Ivan is a good climber, so I tried to keep his rhythm and it helped. Then at the end, guys were dropping like flies as we caught up with 3-4 guys, including Gjerdalen, who is one of the best Norwegian climbers.”

With the final climb approaching Legkov and Vylegzhanin moved to the front as Sundby countered and Chernousov went as well leaving the others behind. Legkov crested the final hill first and coming into the finish it was a Russian navy blue streak as Legkov was unstoppable claiming the gold by 0.7s ahead of Vylegzhanin in a photo finish with Chernousov with Sundby in fourth for a Russian sweep, mirroring the Norwegians in the women’s 30km the day before.

Hoping for a top ten finish Harvey expanded on his race. “This was a course built for the Russians. Once I regained contact I knew I wouldn’t be on the podium but I would have been happy with a top 10. I was happy with my skiing, and skied well technically. Every upward slope I skied in zone 2 and let everyone pass me because I knew I would come back on the flats. I kept my energy for the last lap, but I had to use some energy on the flats to come back.”

Babikov, who was 38th in Torino and 33rd in Vancouver shared his thoughts on his best result in the Olympic 50km. “I felt really badly – to go through the pain for the last 25km, it wasn’t pleasant but I stuck in there. Today we had pretty good skis but Alex crashed, I had a broken pole at the beginning of the race and that didn’t help, but you can’t do much about it now right, we gave our 100%. I don’t think you think can say we’re happy. For our whole team it’s been a pretty tough couple of weeks and sometimes we didn’t feel great, sometimes things didn’t work.”

The USA’s Noah Hoffman, who had a stellar race, was hoping for more at the end but ran out of gas. “Twenty-sixth place is not what I’m looking for, but I think it’s moving in the right direction. I feel more comfortable right up near the front. I didn’t lead, which was definitely my plan not to lead. Maybe I would be a little better sitting a little further back in the pack, maybe getting a little better draft to conserve more. That’s something my coaches and I will discuss.”

American Brian Gregg skied with the main pack for the first half of the race and finished 51st, while teammate Kris Freeman crossed the line in 57th.

“The pace was pretty slow in the start up this big climb, but then the flat section it went really hard. We all sort of had an accordion effect,” commented Gregg. “I thought my skis were pretty good. My legs were a little bit heavy, so I just couldn’t quite be on that pace. This is the race I’ve been focusing on. Overall I felt pretty good. I would have liked to have been in that pack a little bit longer. I was with that main group for about 25k.”

Of his first 50km free Olympic experience he noted, “What an incredible thing to be here at the Olympics and to put it all out there on the course. I had a gap in front of me and a gap behind me, but I still gave it everything I could out there and I’m happy about that.”

As a last minute entry, veteran Freeman had to say this, “Well I didn’t find out I was racing until yesterday evening. The coaches and I had decided that I was too tired to race, so we were going to let the other guys go. But then two of them got sick. So I put a bib on and did the best I could.

“Because of where I’d been I didn’t have high expectations going into today. I’m disappointed with the results I’ve had at the Olympics. Today I went out and skied as fast as I could and that’s what I’m here to do. I think Noah was only a minute something out and that’s pretty good. He’s put up two World Cup wins this year in stages. He’s coming up rapidly and I think in four years he’s going to be something to watch.”

Harvey leaves us with the final quote on the final Day 16 of the Sochi Games, “I came here in great shape and our training camp was perfect. We did everything we could. All that we could control was well done. It’s just that we have not been able to deliver the goods,” he said, recalling that Norway’s Petter Northug, considered one of the best in the world, leaves the Games without a medal as well.

“This is not the end of the world. It’s just sport, but there is not a day where we can be satisfied with the results. I have no regrets, because we prepared as best we could. Yes, I have disappointments and I do not know what we could have done differently,” said Harvey.

Results here.

February 23, 2014 (Hayward, WI) – Germany’s Tom Reichelt won the men’s race while the USA’s Caitlin Gregg secured her third victory in the women’s competition at the 41st American Birkebeiner on Feb. 22nd.

In Europe where one has to go high up or know the few special places which still have a lot of snow, the area between Cable and Hayward in Wisconsin (USA) looked like a winter dream after another snow storm right before the weekend brought another 40cm of new snow.

Blue sky and temperatures around -17°C at the start as well as a strong wind from the front awaited the over 7,000 skiers who were on the start line of the 41st edition of the American Birkebeiner in Cable. After skiing a total of 50km  (skate) and 54km (classic) the participants were greeted by many spectators at the famous finish on Main Street in Hayward. It was a perfect finish after a long stroll through the forest and along rolling hills.

The women’s skating technique race (which figured as FIS MC as did the men’s skating technique race) started 20 minutes in front of the men’s race, but the best woman came into the finish not long after the best men. A strong effort especially in the hard conditions as today.

A group of  the best 10 men were skiing together until a couple of kilometres before the finish. Then half of them dropped while the other five continued to battle in a finish sprint for the three podium spots. Benoit Chauvet (FRA), who had hoped to be able to grab the lead in the overall FIS Marathon Cup after this race, was one of the ones who had to let go, whereas his fellow countryman Christoph Perrillat, who was leading the pack from time to time, went on hoping to get on the podium but when Perrillat got onto Main Street his legs wouldn’t let him fight for one of the top three spots. In the end he finished fifth.

Sergio Bonaldi (ITA), last year’s winner, got to the finish stretch in fourth and was still hoping to be able to outsprint Tom Reichelt (GER), who was leading into Main Street. However, his team mate Simone Paredi and Reichelt wouldn’t allow it so Bonaldi finished third this year. With his victory, Reichelt won his first FIS Marathon Cup in his first season on the long distance race circuit.

On the women’s side, it was Caitlin Gregg (USA) who took her chance when the best men came and passed her and Antonalla Confortola (ITA). She pushed hard and gave everything to stay with the men. She succeeded and got a pretty good gap between her and Confortola. Gregg brought her lead into the finish where she celebrated her 3rd victory in the American Birkebeiner – a new record on the women’s side for this race! The Italian Confortola secured her second place while Rosie Brennan (USA) pushed hard to keep her followers apart and finished third.

The Birkie celebration won’t stop for several hours as more and more people will gather around Main Street, in the pubs and restaurants to cheer on those who still have not crossed the finish line yet. The big podium ceremony will be held in the evening  followed by a big party in the Sealey Saw Mill – a tradition everyone who skis the American Birkebeiner gets to know!

Reichelt and Confortola (ITA) new leaders in the overall FIS Marathon Cup

After today’s American Birkebeiner, the overall FIS Marathon Cup has new leaders on the men’s as well as on the women’s side. With his victory today, Tom Reichelt from Germany gained the lead in the men’s ranking with 208 points in front of Martin Koukal (CZE, 197 points) and Benoit Chauvet (FRA,187 points).

Antonella Confortola (ITA), the second in todays’s race, took over the overall FIS Marathon Cup ranking which she now leads with 209 points in front of Riita-Liisa Roponen (FIN, 200 points) and Julia Tikhonova (RUS, 180 points).

As the next FIS Marathon Cup, the Engadin Skimarathon (SUI) on March 9 will be this year’s final, there will be a big battle for the overall ranking since all racers are pretty close together.

Next week’s FIS Marathon Cup Bieg Piastow (POL) had to be cancelled due to lack of snow!!!

The complete result list from today’s race & overall FIS Marathon Cup standing here.

The statements of the top 3

1st Tom Reichelt (GER):
It’s a wonderful feeling to win the American Birkebeiner here in Hayward. For me it’s my first time here and it’s also my first victory in the FIS Marathon Cup. And that I do lead now the overall as well…it’s simply amazing. I am really happy. The race today was tough. The speed was relatively high for the conditions. When we came to the lake our group split up to 5 people. That was right before Hayward and when we got into Main Street and the finish, I just pushed on. I felt very confident and believed in myself. I am really happy that it worked out with the victory.

2nd Simone Paredi (ITA):
It’s my first time here at the American Birkebeiner and I really enjoyed it. Even though the race was very hard, especially with the hard wind we had to face quite often and the cold temperatures. I tried to catch Tom in the finish sprint, but he was just too strong for me. But I am really happy with my second place!!

3rd Sergio Bonaldi (ITA):
I am really satisfied with my race today even though I surely hoped to win again after my victory last year. However, on Main Street, I simply didn’t have enough power left to pass Simone and Tom, so I am happy that I could ensure the third place. I am also pretty happy to be on the podium with Simone – our whole team did a great job, especially with Antonella gaining another podium place for us!

1st Caitlin Gregg (USA):
I am really happy that I could win again this year. It was not so easy but it was my goal after I hadn’t made the Olympic Team. It was a tough race today, especially with the wind blowing strongly over the lake right before the finish. When the men passed us I just thought I have to give it a go and so I pushed hard to stay with them. That worked out pretty well and when I saw Matt Liebsch he said to me: If you feel good, just try to stay with me and we’ll do it. That was just the right thing to do and exactly the help I needed. I am really really happy and I hope to be able to ski many more Birkies!

2nd Antonella Confortola (ITA):
I was skiing close to Caitlin half of the race but when the men came and passed us, she caught the train and followed them whereas I stayed behind. In general it was not easy to get away. I was also very afraid of the cold since I really had problems after a race two years ago. But when the next men came I thought I will just do the same and I did. That was a very good idea. However, over the lake right before the finish, it was very cold and very windy. So I am very happy that it worked out with a second place for me today!

3rd Rosie Brennan (USA):
It was a tough race but I am really happy to be third today. The Birkie is always something special for us Americans, so it’s great to be on the podium here. The weather was nice, even though the wind was blowing very strongly in some palces and made the low temperatures feel even colder. But all the people cheering you on on Main Street right to the finish, this just a great feeling and makes it worthwile the effort!

Important dates and practical information

Please find pictures of the race on the Worldloppet Facebook page!

Next FIS Marathon Cup:

March 9: Engadin Skimarathon (SUI) – 6th FIS Marathon Cup 2013-14 / 42km FT – FIS Marathon Cup FINAL

Worldloppet – The World of Marathon Skiing!!!

February 23, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – Canada had a strong seventh-place finish in the men’s 4 x 7.5km relay edging out France by 0.2s, as Russia took home the gold in 1:12:15.9 using eight spare rounds, their first Olympic biathlon medal of the Sochi 2014 Games. Germany was only 3.5s behind claiming the silver having used two spare rounds while Austria, landed third on the podium using seven spares for the bronze at 29.8 seconds back.

Team Canada including Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, of Shannon, Que., Regina’s Scott Perras, Calgary’s Nathan Smith, and Brendan Green, of Hay River, N.W.T. was in a tight race with France after a rough start.

“I did everything I could to put everything in place so that it would happen in the race today,” said Le Guellec post race. “I was disciplined in the second lap and I geared a bit at the beginning to get past that swing but after the second round I just kind of started shaking and for me standing is a bit more of a challenge. When I’m not in that comfort zone or under control I struggle a lot and that’s what happened.

“I would have preferred not to go into the friggin’ penalty booth as it put me 43 seconds off and we came in seventh. The race is still young but yeah that mistake we can’t afford any other like that.”

“Mainly, during the two weeks I was here I had the energy, I was in shape, but there was always something, one thing that happened each time that stopped me and that kept me from doing what I wanted to do, like the ice patch, so certainly some frustration but…,” he added.

Team USA’s relay squad consisting of Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), Russell Currier (Stockholm, Maine), Sean Doherty (Center Conway, NH) and Leif Nordgren (Marine, MN) closed out the 2014 Olympic Games with a 16th.

Bailey had a strong start for Team USA, skiing the lead in the first loop and cleaning both stages. “I wanted to push the pace in the first loop, so things went well there,” said Bailey. “On the range, I didn’t try to push the shooting and I didn’t try to do anything but hit the targets. A lot of times in relays, you try to shoot faster because you have those extra rounds, but I just tried to take quality shots. I shot a little slower, but I was able to hit everything.”

For Green it was a solid day but as he was not at 100% he knows there’s more to come. “Yeah it was a pretty tight race – I didn’t know how we were doing up until when I came out of the tunnel. The skis were good and the shape was there and the team also. The potential’s always there for me especially with this group of guys we have here right now, but yeah I’m definitely satisfied.

“It’s been a stressful last couple of days, I woke up yesterday feeling kind of sick so I went to see the doctor again and I started on another dose of antibiotics.”

Smith battled with France’s Martin Fourcade for 7th. “I thought I had good chances, I’m usually pretty good at sprint races. It seemed like he was holding back a little bit, on the last lap, I didn’t want to pass him until the last uphill so, I held back a little bit too, for the end.

“I think we did okay, no as good as in the individuals, I did use a couple more spares than I would have liked, so I dunno, it was a good race but not like the best relay I ever had. My best skiing was definitely in the individuals. I’d like to continue, gain some more top 16s and hopefully a couple more top 10s – I’d really like to get into the mass start in Slovenia and redeem myself, so.”

Norway took an early lead with Germany and Russia in second and third. The positions remained intact but Slovenia and Austria were in striking distance. On the final leg it was a four-man race as Austria’s Dominik Landertinger put them in contention.

Norway’s Svendsen cracked with a penalty as Simon Schempp and Anton Shipulin cleaned setting up the final battle as Landertinger needed a spare round. Shipulin out-skied Schempp for the gold as the Russian team of Alexey Volkov, Evegeny Ustyugov, Dmitry Malyshko, and Shipulin celebrated their victory.

Full results here.

February 23, 2014  (Krasnaya Polyana, Russia) – Marit Bjoergen won historic gold as she led a first-ever Norwegian sweep of the women’s 30km FR mass start becoming the most successful woman in Olympic Winter Games history. This was Bjoergen’s sixth Olympic gold and her 10th medal at the Games as she also has won three silvers and one bronze.

Joining Bjoergen on the podium were teammates Therese Johaug, winning the silver, and Kristin Stormer Steira taking home the bronze finally earning a medal after finishing off the podium in 4th on four previous occasions at the Games.

The top North American was the USA’s Liz Stephen in 24th followed by Holly Brooks in 27th with Kikkan Randall 29th. Teammate Jessie Diggins had a tough day in the warm conditions ending up 40th. Brittany Webster lead the Canadians in 46th with teammate Emily Nishikawa in 47th and Amanda Ammar in 49th. Heidi Widmer was close behind in 52nd.

Johaug took an early lead with Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen and Krista Lahteenmaki in tow as Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla and fellow Norwegian Heidi Weng were close behind. By the 5km mark Bjoergen was leading with Johaug in second as Steira moved into third when they reached 8km with the Americans in the main pack sitting in the mid 20s.

Things remained unchanged at 10km as they started the third lap with Kalla in fourth but the Norwegians would soon wind it up and at 12.5km they had a 16.9 second gap on Lahteenmaki who was leading the chase behind

By the 15km mark the writing was on the wall as Polish star Justyna Kowalczyk dropped out and Kalla faded as the gap was now 33 seconds to Lahteenmaki with no rest in sight. The trio had clearly made the move of the day and any chance of catching them was fading fast as they proved to be untouchable for the remainder of the race.

In a show of solidarity for their tech crew that has been under fire at these Games for the somewhat lacklustre Norwegian performances, the three leaders did not change skis.

The three were like glue until the last lap as Johaug attacked on the final climb with Steira unable to counter but Bjoergen was not an easy mark and had a game plan of her own as she passed Johaug and crested the hill in the lead. Johaug couldn’t contain her as Bjoergen crossed the line more for another memorable gold as Norway swept the podium.

While Stephen hoped for better than 24th she was happy with her race. “Today I wanted to come out here and smile as big as I could on the start line. I did that and I skied with no stress out there,” said the Vermont skier. “I was trying to enjoy myself because that’s when I ski my best. I’m just happy to have started my fifth Olympic race ever. What a day to race, for sure. It was hot and there were tons of fans.

“I’m just happy to be here and to have a great team around me. Certainly I was hoping to have better results today, but what can you do? You go out and you try your hardest and that’s what I did. Some days it works and some days it doesn’t.”

Anticipating a softer course in the second half of the race the Americans elected to swap their skis. Brooks spoke of her decision to make the exchange.

“I felt really good. I’m just kicking myself for switching skis at 10k. That was a disaster. We were all skiing together and our team kind of came into the day thinking that it was going to be way faster to switch skis. I don’t think those [other] girls were skiing that much faster than I was. When you’re skiing out there by yourself or with one or two other people, you can’t do it.

“I’ve been on the other side of the coin before too. In Oslo 2011 I didn’t switch skis, I skied right through the exchange zone and then everyone caught me and just flew past me. So I had that in the back of my head and thought maybe my skis were going to make a difference today. I felt good, but I lost the pack, so I’m bummed about that.”

Randall struggled on her own but found the course held up and while she hope for better results she felt the Games were a success in the end. “It was a lot better than I thought out there. There were a couple sections that got a little soft, but for the most part the course was firm and it actually skied much better at race pace than it does when you’re trying to go slow. It was fun to jump in and for about 7.5k I was right there with the leaders and feeling good.

“It was kind of weird. All of a sudden things just started to break up and I looked up and I was on my own. Then the ski exchange really spread that apart. So I definitely struggled skiing on my own in the middle when the pace kind of settled a little bit, but then I came on strong in the last lap.

“I’d certainly say it’s been a character building couple of weeks. It’s not exactly what we had imagined. We were good to come in with so much confidence. For me personally, I just didn’t quite hit the fitness right and then tried to put on a new face every race, but it was challenging. So I think we will learn a lot. Certainly we know that we are close. We’ve just got to keep fighting to get it right. I think overall we still had a successful Olympics.”

The intense heat on the snow did not serve some athletes well including Diggins. “The biggest thing I learned from today is that it’s a really good thing I’m not a summer Olympian because I do not perform in the heat very well. I just shut down. The first 8km felt great. I was really excited. I was skiing right where I wanted to be in the pack and just cruising. Then the first time up this really big hill-it was in the sun, it was hot -I just reached a certain temperature and shut down. It was pretty immediate.”

Of her solid effort, Diggins stated, “There were some awesome, fun moments out there and I’m just proud of myself for finishing. It was a brutal race. It wasn’t my kind of temperature at all, but I stuck it out and so I’m psyched with that. How many Olympic 30k’s am I get the chance to do in my life? So I might as well give it my best shot and just enjoy the moment.”

Full results here.

February 23, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – German biathlete, Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, was kicked out of the Sochi Games on Feb. 21 by the IOC after testing positive for the stimulant methylhexanamine following tests after the women’s biathlon mass start race on Feb. 17, becoming the first doping case of the 2014 Olympics. The IOC said in a statement that she was disqualified from the mass start and her entire team had its fourth-place finish in the mixed relay canceled – read sanction notice here.

The Italian Olympic Committee also announced that bobsledder William Frullani was ejected from the Games on Feb. 21 after testing positive for the banned stimulant dimetylpentylamine. Frullani, a former decathlete, is believed to have purchased the dimethylamphetamine on the Internet from the United States.

Sachenbacher-Stehle, 33, won gold medals in the team sprint at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and 4x5K relay at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. She won silver medals in Salt Lake, Vancouver and at the 2006 Turin Games. The German star switched to biathlon from cross-country skiing in the 2012-13 season and did not win any medals at Sochi.

Sachenbacher received a five-day suspension at the beginning of the 2006 Winter Olympics due to a high Hemoglobin level. She was one of twelve athletes given five-day suspensions for health reasons.

Sachenbacher-Stehle called this experience “a nightmare” and denies ever knowingly taking banned substances and suggests a nutritional supplement caused her positive test.

The IOC is conducting a record number of 2,453 drug tests in Sochi.