After Kris Freeman's dominating performance in yesterday's 30K Classic, the US team had high hopes for todays sprint. Torin Koos scored World Cup sprint points last year and Junior Andrew Newell continues to show that he can sprint with the best of them. But instead, it was a Canadian woman who stole the North American spotlight.
Tara Whitten (CAN) finished second overall in the women's sprint at the U23 games. This despite being ranked only 17th in qualifying. She worked her way through the heats, and was only beaten by Italy's Christina Kelder in the final. Emilie Vina of France took third. Other North Americans:
8 Kikkan Randall USA
14 Aubrey Smith USA
17 Kristina Trygstad-Saari USA
20 Sarah Daitch
24 Melissa Oram
After Freeman's victory, the thought of winning the sprint was probably in the minds of Koos and Newell, if not others US skiers as well. But Kristian Jon Dahl of Norway put an end to those thoughts, taking the win ahead of Toni Lang (Germany) and Frederik Bystroem (Sweden). Newell was the top North American, making it to the B Final and finishing 8th overall. Chris Cook made it through his first round heat to finish right behind Newell in 9th. Other North Americans:
16 Torin Koos USA
20 Kris Freeman USA
25 Drew Goldsack CAN
33 Devon Kershaw CAN
35 Vincent Renart CAN
38 Adam Kates CAN
