March 07, 2011 (Vernon, BC) – Russia showed their strength on Sunday in the classic mass starts dominating the field in the second day of competition at the Sparkling Hill Masters World Cup, winning 11 golds out of 23 races. The first men’s Classic races (M01, M02, M03) were led by Russia’s Anton Shevchenko and Alexander Mindrin along with Pavel Petr of the Czech Republic.

The first American medal of the day went to Dan Streubel in the M02 category in third place. Canadian Donald Farley was pleased with his second place finish in the 30km Classic M03 category.

“It was a tough race, right from the start,” Farley told SkiTrax. “There’s a good uphill at 4km. We all attacked there, and the group separated. We ended up with three guys and we worked together until the last 5km. I lost ground to the Czech on the last uphill. He had more legs.”

Canadian Michel Labrei, 2nd in M04 race, told us, “The first guy was too strong for us. I skied with the third and the fourth. I skied alone the last 15km. It was a very nice course but with the snow it was very slow.”

The first American gold medal in the women’s 15km classic races went to Inge Scheve in the F02, who was followed in by her teammates Sann Sevanto and Marlene Farrell in second and third place.

US skier Ginny Price took first place in the F06 category while Canada’s Marg Fedyna topped the podium in the F04 competition with teammate Wieske Eikelenboom in second.

Canada finished with 13 medals on day two while the and Americans netted nine – full results HERE.