January 17, 2015 (Otepaa, Estonia) – Thomas Northug (NOR), younger brother of famous Petter, took home his first World Cup victory in the men’s Sprint CL at Otepaa on Saturday – in fact it was his first WC podium and he won in style skiing away from the entire field. Fellow Norwegian, Ola Vigen Hattestad, out-lunged Finland’s Toni Ketelae for second place at 1.57 as Ketelae was also debuting on the WC podium.

The USA’s Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton were the lone qualifiers in 21st and 30th respectively and drew the same quarterfinal. But both were eliminated as Hamilton was 3rd and Newell 4th and unfortunately the Lucky Losers were in faster heats. Hamilton  finished in 16th and Newell was 17th.

“I am fairly happy with today’s result, especially since it was a classic sprint and I’ve always felt like I’ve been a strong skate sprinter but my classic sprinting has some holes in it,” commented Hamilton. “My body felt a little flat still in the qualifier- I’m not sure if all of my energy and top speed are back after a pretty tiring first week of the TdS.

“But I was happier with how I felt in the quarterfinal and just focused on skiing the first half relaxed and then trying to put a surge of energy in from steep climb at halfway all the way to the finish line. I think my steep striding has improved, as well as my double pole finish speed, so that was encouraging to see today. My skis were great today and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s skate team sprint as well as next weekend’s individual skate sprint in Russia,” he concluded.

Newell is finding his legs again after some tougher days but he’s still not 100%.

“I’m feeling fine after the TdS and have been spending the last week or so really focusing on trying to get back to 100 percent and get to the bottom of my allergy problems. I’m obviously still not firing on all cylinders but I think things are slowly improving. Today wasn’t a very good result but in general my heart rates have been returning to normal and I’ve been trying out some new diets to try to shake this allergic reaction Ive been having. So the good news is we’re on the right track and still a month or so away from World Champs.

“Conditions were pretty straight forward – klister skiing early on and in qualification. Although it started snowing later in the heats. There were some different kinds of snow out there so during quali so we were outside the track and kind of dancing around to find the quickest snow.

“I was excited to race here because I love this venue and I think this would have been a great course for me if I was feeling 100% since there was lots of good striding out there. So I tried to play to my strengths but still not 100%.

“In the heat it was my strategy to try to put the hammer down on the last short steep climb to see if I could get any separation from the pack but I got a little stuck behind Hattestad at one point and then suffered a few slips – so it didn’t really work out as planned. I knew Goldberg and Hattestad were going to be tough to out-sprint in the lanes and unfortunately they got the better of Simi and I.

“We will fire it up together for the Team Sprint and hopefully have a good showing in the Final,” he added.

Qualifications here.
Final results here.