February 01, 2017 (Soldier Hollow, UT) – The USA’s Katherine Ogden raced to a phenomenal 5th-place finish in the Junior women’s 5km Freestyle individual start at 6.5 seconds from the podium as Sweden’s Ebba Andersson stormed to a dominant victory. Ogden recently placed 4th in 10km FS individual start at the US National Championship held on the same course at Soldier Hollow.

Marte Maehlum Johansen from Norway claimed the silver at 13.8 seconds behind while the bronze went to Russian Mariya Istomina at 15.3 seconds behind the winner.

American Hannah Halvorsen also posted a top result with a solid 13th-place finish at 1:01.2 back. Taeler McCrerey (USA) was the third best North American finisher in 20th at 1:18.9 behind with Hailey Swirbul just out of the top 30 at 1:35.5 back in 31st.

Honours for the top Canadian finisher of the day went to Lisle Compton in 39th at 1:51.9 back. Annika Richardson finished in 41st, at 1:57.8 behind while Claire Grall-Johnson placed 42nd, less than a second behind Richardson.

Temperatures warmed close to 0 degrees C this morning as the Junior women skied one lap of the 2002 Olympic 5km course, starting at 30 seconds apart to tackle the course’s challenging 198m of climbing. The race was reverse-seeded, and athletes with the best FIS distance points started at the end of the order.

Times were close on the challenging but fast and perfectly manicured course, with the top 30 athletes within one minute and thirty seconds.

Racing continues tomorrow with the U23 Individual Start 10/15km FS races.

Results here.