Former
Classic distance specialist, Wendy Wagner of the US Ski Team won the Silver
Star Nor/Am sprint ahead of Alpina’s Aelin Peterson.
Wendy, who prior to this season has never done especially well in skate
events placed second in the prelim and won all her heats including the
final. She spent a great deal of time working on skate technique this
summer and fall, and that work has paid off big. It was her second victory
of the weekend…and she still has one race to go, the pursuit on
Sunday.
The men’s sprint was dominated by the US. Both the simi-final and
the final were incredibly fast, close races. Junior star, US Development
Team skier, Andrew Newell won the prelim by a huge three seconds. He went
on to comfortably win each of his heats. Unfortunately he faded in the
last fifty meters of the final to finish fourth.
Lars Flora snuck ahead of hard charging Dave Chamberlain (Maine Winter
Sports Center – LL Bean) for the win. In third came Kris Freeman,
US Ski Team, who has traditionally been a distance specialist.
Conditions at Silver Star were incredible. The races took place under
the lights, starting at 7pm. It was a very fogy night, the trees were
covered in thick hoar frost and the organizers set up a blazing bonfire
and had music pumping through a huge speaker system setting a wild winter
mood for the races. Hundreds of spectators were on hand armed with bells
and horns making it the sprints a truly world class event.
To see pictures from this event go to SkiFaster.net
Sprint Prelim
Men
1. Andrew Newell. USA-D. 1:23:79
2. Lars Flora. Independent (USA). 1:26:79
3. Drew Goldsack. CAN. 1:27:06
4. Zack Simons. U of Utah. 1:27:10
5. Carl Swenson. USST. 1:27:27
Women
1. Chandra Crawford. CAN. 1:37:19
2. Wendy Wagner. USST. 1:38:51
3. Christine Bisson. MSA/CAN. 1:40:32
4. Tara Whitten. CAN. 1:40:46
5. Aelin Peterson. Alpina. 1:41:07
Final Results
Men
1. Lars Flora. USA.
2. Dave Chamberlain. MWSC/LL Bean (USA).
3. Kris Freeman. USST.
4. Andrew Newell. USA-D.
Women
1. Wendy Wagner. USST.
2. Aelin Peterson. Alpina (USA)
3. Tara Whitten. CAN.
4. Daria Gaiazova. CAN.
