After a disappointing first two races for the American team, the guys finally put together a great team effort in Saturday's sprint. In the preliminary qualifying, Andrew Newell was 2nd, Leif Zimmerman was 4th and Ryan Foster also sqeaked into the final heats with a 16th. In the heats, all three Americans advanced to the semifinals, but none were quite able to make the finals. This meant that that the B Final would be an exciting battle between three Americans and and Italian. The final finsh order was Leif Zimmerman, Ryan Foster, and Andrew Newell in 5th, 6th, and 7th repsectively. This marked the best US Team day ever at World Juniors.
Overall, the Norwegians were dominant, taking first and second with Johan Kjoelstad and Erik Bakejord. The two also finished 1st and 3rd in the prelims.
Other North Americans:
11 Sean Crooks CAN
32 Steve Scott USA
33 Graham Nisikawa CAN
35 David Nighbor CAN
<Men's Qualifying
<Men's Final Results
In the women's race, American Lindsay Williams qualified 4th, but was unable to get past the first round, finishing 13th. USA's Katie Ronsee was 19th, Canadian Chandra Crawford was 23rd, Daria Gaiazova CAN 29th, Kristina Trygstad-Saari USA 36, Lindsey Weier USA 43rd, Perianne Jones CAN 45, Madaleine Williams CAN 47.
The women's winner was Nicole Fessel of Germany.
<Women's Qualifying
<Women's Final Results
Stay tuned for a first hand report from Andrew Newell.
