January 17, 2014 – The next round of the Viessmann FIS XC World Cup takes place this weekend in Szklarska Poreba, Poland. Saturday, January 18 will see the world’s top sprinters duke it out in a freestyle match-up, while Sunday wraps  up with a 10/15km Classic event. Here’s a look at the contenders in the sprint races. More info about the Szklarska Poreba on the official race website here.

Women’s Free Sprint: Randall looking for two wins in a week

• Kikkan Randall (USA) won her first race this season last weekend in Nove Mesto. Randall did not participate in the Tour de Ski. Last season she won four of the five races held in sprint freestyle (including tour stages).
• Randall was second in her only other sprint freestyle participation so far this season, in Davos on 15 December, behind Marit Bjørgen. Bjørgen will not compete in Szklarska Poreba.
• Randall has only been outside the final (top 6) in two of her 21 last starts in sprint freestyle (World Cup, World Championships and tour stages). WCH in Oslo 2011 was one of these, when she was only 26th.
• Randall has been on the podium in 17 of her last 21 sprint freestyle starts in World Cup and tour stages, going back almost four years.
• Denise Herrmann (GER) is currently leading the sprint World Cup standings this season on 282 points, ahead of Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (241) and Kikkan Randall (237).
• Herrmann could be the first German skier to win the overall sprint World Cup. Only once before has a German skier finished on the overall sprint podium, when Manuela Henkel was third in 2000/01.
• Denise Herrmann has never won a World Cup race or a Tour stage. Her first ever World Cup podium was a third place in Davos on 15 December 2013 in sprint freestyle.
• If Denise Herrmann wins in Szklarska Poreba she will be the first German lady to win a World Cup sprint race since Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle won the sprint freestyle in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in December 2001. Stehle’s win is the only win for Germany in sprint for ladies.
• Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) has not been in a sprint freestyle final (World Cup and tour stages) since she won in Moscow in February 2012.
• Kowalczyk’s three podium places in World cup races in sprint freestyle have all come in Russia. In addition to her win in Moscow she was third in Rybinsk both 2010 and 2011. Kowalczyk also has two third places from stages in the Tour de Ski.
• The next World Cup win for Norway will be their win number 50 in sprint for ladies. Norwegian athletes have won 49 of the 121 ladies World Cup sprints held.

Men’s Free Sprint: Pellegrino looking for first career win in Szklarska Poreba

• Federico Pellegrino is closing in on his first career win. The Italian has finished four times in second place in the World Cup and tour stages in sprint freestyle.
• If Pellegrino wins he will be the first Italian man to win a sprint race since Renato Pasini won in Rybinsk 31 January 2009.
• Pellegrino leads the overall sprint World Cup with 208 points, ahead of Sergey Ustiugov (192) and Nikita Kriukov (185).
• All 17 seasons with a separate sprint World Cup have had an overall winner from Norway or Sweden. The last four seasons a Swede has won the sprint cup, with Emil Jönsson winning three of those.
• An Italian skier has finished second in the overall sprint World Cup on three occasions: Fulvio Valbusa (1996/97), Cristian Zorzi (2000/01) and Renato Pasini (2008/09).
• The last seven sprints for men in freestyle in World Cup and tour stages have had seven different winners.
• Emil Jönsson is the only man to win more than once in the last 17 sprint freestyle races for men, since (and including) Marcus Hellner’s win in World Championship in Oslo in February 2011. Jönsson has won three races since then, and 14 athletes have one win each.
• Sergey Ustiugov became only the third Russian man to win a World Cup race/tour stage in sprint freestyle. Nikolay Morilov and Alexey Petukhov have three wins each in this discipline.
• Ustiugov has only competed in four World Cup races in sprint freestyle. He has been in the final in three of those races.
• Russia has finished with an athlete on the overall sprint World Cup podium in three of the last four seasons. Alexei Petukhov was third in 2009/10, Nikolay Morilov second in 2011/12, and Nikita Kriukov third in 2012/13.