Weekly Race Roundup: Golden Americans, Historic Bronze for Harvey and NoCo, Another Birkie in the Books

Chelsea LittleFebruary 25, 2013
The USST enjoys the moment.
The USST enjoys the moment.

 

It’s World Championships time! All of the nordic disciplines – cross country, nordic combined, and jumping – converged on Val di Fiemme, Italy, for the every-other-year festival for bragging rights.

One thing was clear right off the bat: that New Years heart scare hasn’t slowed down Norway’s Marit Bjørgen one bit. She climbed to victory in the classic sprint, besting Ida Ingemarsdotter of Sweden, then led a four-deep Norway sweep of the 15 k skiathlon. Another double winner was Nikita Kriukov of Russia, who won both the individual sprint and the freestyle team sprint along with Alexei Petukhov. Switzerland’s Dario Cologna interrupted the Russian party, winning the 30 k skiathlon for, at last, his first world title.

Another thing was clear, too: watch out for North America. In Thursday’s sprint Alex Harvey won Canada’s first individual World Championships medal, collecting bronze behind Kriukov and Petter Northug. A day later Lindsey Van ceded the women’s ski jumping world title to American teammate Sarah Hendrickson. Then, on Sunday, more fireworks: Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins skied to an incredible seven-second victory in the team sprint, and later that afternoon the American nordic combined team collected bronze in the team event, their first team medal at World Championships.

Over in the Midwest, a different sort of “championships” was taking place. The biggest ski marathon in the U.S. and the country’s entry onto the Worldloppet schedule, the American Birkebeiner traversed from Cable to Hayward. Caitlin Gregg won the second title of her career, but in the men’s race the U.S. squad missed out on the prize money as an Italian team controlled the race from start to finish and Sergio Bonaldi edged teammate and former Birkie champ Fabio Santus for the win.

A lot of other high-level racing was happening around the world too; all three U.S. college divisions hosted their regional championships, with competitions hosted at Bohart Ranch in Bozeman, by Michigan Tech in Houghton, and by Bates College in Rumford. U.S. juniors competed in Norway; U.S. and Canadian junior and senior biathletes raced at Open European Championships in Bansko, Bulgaria. We’ll have a NorAm report up soon from Western Canadian Championships, as well as coverage from at least a couple of these other races. Results are listed below regardless.

FIS World Championships, Val di Fiemme, Italy

Cross Country | results

Wednesday 5/10 k qualifying races: men’s blog post | women’s blog postphoto gallery

Thursday individual sprints: men’s & women’s reports | American & Canadian | Sophie Caldwell | men’s & women’s photo galleries

Saturday 15/20 k skiathlons: men’s & women’s reports | Canadian & American | men’s & women’s photo galleries

Sunday team sprints: men’s & women’s reports | Canadian women | American men | women’s photos | U.S. women bonus report

 

Nordic Combined | results

Friday normal hill: report

Sunday team race: report

 

Ski Jumping

Friday women: blog post | results

Saturday men normal hill: results

Sunday mixed team competition: results

 

American Birkebeiner, Cable to Hayward, Wisconsin

men’s report | women’s report | results

 

NorAm/Western Canadian Championships, Grand Prairie, Alberta | blog post

Friday freestyle sprint: qualifying, men’s, and women’s results

Saturday 10/15 k classic: men’s & women’s results

Sunday 15/30 k freestyle pursuits: men’s stage times & final standings | women’s stage times & final standings

 

EISA Championships / Bates College Carnival, Waterville, Maine

results | report

RMISA Regional Championships, Bozeman, Montana

Friday 5/10 k classic: results

Saturday 15/20 k freestyle: results

CCSA Regional Championships, Houghton, Michigan | results

 

Norwegian Junior National Championships, Lillehammer, Norway

results | blog post

 

IBU Open European Championships, Bansko, Bulgaria  | results

 

Chelsea Little

Chelsea Little is FasterSkier's Editor-At-Large. A former racer at Ford Sayre, Dartmouth College and the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, she is a PhD candidate in aquatic ecology in the @Altermatt_lab at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. You can follow her on twitter @ChelskiLittle.

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