February 26, 2006 (Pragelato, Italy) – Italy’s Giorgio DiCenta provided a dramatic finale to the Olympic cross country races Sunday, winning gold in the inaugural 50K freestyle mass start event. Two-time Olympian Andrew Johnson (Greensboro, VT) had the top U.S. result, finishing 34th on the final day of Olympic Winter Games XX.

DiCenta, who was part of Italy’s gold-medal relay team earlier in the Games, had a winning time of 2:06.11.8 with Russian Eugeni Dementiev the silver medalist in 2:06.12.6 and Austrian Mikhail Botvinov taking the bronze.

Johnson finished in 2:07.56.3 while Kris Freeman (ANdover, NH) was 61st. Carl Swenson (Park City, UT), who had been troubled earlier in the Olympics with a nagging chest cold, and James Southam (Anchorage, AK) failed to finish.

“I’m not pleased with the placing – I’d have liked to be a little higher,” Johnson said, “but I’m pleased with my time. My plan was to push from the start, get into the lead pack – I knew there’d be one – and stay there…

“If one of us couldn’t do, I’m glad an Italian won. They’re good guys and they’re easy to root for.”

Head Coach Trond Nystad added, “AJ had a good race and the other guys didn’t. So, the end of the Olympics was as frustrating as the start. We had some good high points – Andy [Newell – Shaftsbury, VT] and Kikkan [Randall – Anchorage, AK] in the sprints, Chris Cook [Rhinelander, WI], too…and Sarah Konrad [Laramie, WY] had a strong women’s 30K [32nd place].

“Everyone gave their best effort, no question – and the support staff was outstanding, I thought,” Nystad said, “but we’ve got work to do, and now we’ve got more work to do on the World Cup. There are still a few weeks to go there [Scandinavia and then China and Japan] before the season’s over, and we’ll have extra skiers racing there, getting some experience.”

The World Cup resumes March 5 in Sweden as the schedule takes its traditional March swing through Scandinavia before finishing with the first World Cup races – sprints March 15 in Changchun – in China and races March 18-19 in Sapporo, Japan, which will host the 2007 World Nordic Ski Championships.

CCC Report – George Grey 44th in final race of the Games
It was a bright sunny day in Pragelato as the Olympic cros country competitions wound down with the mens 50 k mass start event.
The early stages of the race saw George Grey at the front of the pack for several kilometres and at the 30k mark the field still contaned a tightly bunched group with 50 skiers sepeated by only 12 seconds. The top bunch still included George Grey and Russian Canadian Ivan Babikov.

Zsolt Antal from Roumania had made a an attempt to breakaway from the top group between 15 and 20k, building up a 22 second lead before being reeled in by the pack. Chris Jeffries was 54th at 30k at 1.22 back and Dan Roycroft 62nd out of 82 starters 1.54 back.

As the skiers approached the 40k mark , the lead skers including Anders Soedergren of Sweden started pushing the pace a bit on some major uphills. George Grey fell a bit ff the pace with this surge, dropping to just over a minute back from the lead.

The pack then closed up again in the last 5k, with several competitors making breaks for brief moments, before the main pack of 25 or 30 skiers once again caught up.

On the last big uphills a top of 10 pack made a final push and headed into the stadium.

In the final sprint Georgio Di Centa powered to gold and Eugeni Dementiev of Russia made a final sprint, just like in the pursuit, to capture silver. Botvinov, of the Austrian team, managed to peak at the right time again, finishing 3rd. Emmanuel Jonnier of France finished 4th. The top 10 racers finished within 6 seconds of the lead.

Andrew Johnson of the US had the top North Ameican result in 34th with Russian Canadian Ivan Babikov in 38th, and George Grey in 44th. Dan Roycroft and Chris Jeffries finished in 57th and 58th position.

Results

1 di CENTA Giorgio ITA 2:06:11.8 FF
2 DEMENTIEV Eugeni RUS 2:06:12.6 FF
3 BOTWINOV Mikhail AUT 2:06:12.7
4 JONNIER Emmanuel FRA 2:06:13.5 FF
5 PILLER COTTRER Pietro ITA 2:06:14.0 FF
6 SOEDERGREN Anders SWE 2:06:14.1
7 KOUKAL Martin CZE 2:06:14.9
8 MAGAL Jiri CZE 2:06:15.1
9 VITTOZ Vincent FRA 2:06:16.4
10 FREDRIKSSON Mathias SWE 2:06:17.1

34 JOHNSON Andrew USA 2:07:56.3
44 Babikov Ivan Russia/CAN
44 GREY George CAN 2:09:38.4
57 ROYCROFT Dan CAN 2:13:47.5
58 JEFFRIES Chris CAN 2:13:49.5
61 FREEMAN Kris USA 2:15:32.6

DNF SWENSON Carl USA
DNF SOUTHAM James USA —