Masters World Cup 2004: Day 2
The weather warmed up for today's skate races at World Masters in
Lillehammer, Norway. Yesterdays's temperatures just before start were close
to -20 Celsius (below zero F), so today's (Monday's) 30 degrees felt balmy.
The format for the World Masters competitions is a bit unique. For each
distance, the participants must choose which technique to race in. For
example, in the men's youngest age groups, about 50% of the age group skiers
raced the 30km in classical technique yesterday, while the other half raced
in skating technique today. In this way, you never really know who your
competitors will be until you go to the startline. Each race is in a
mass-start format, and each age group starts 10 minutes apart.
In today's middle distance skate races (15 or 30km, depending on age group),
Sun Valley's Jon Engen captured the day's only US gold medal in the M4
class,with a winning time of 1.19.15. John outsprinted his main competitor
with 50 meters to go.
Other medal winners were Murray Banks in the M6 class in third place with a
time of 1.24.06, Muffy Ritz – third in the F4 class with a time of 45.39.2
(15 km), Ingrid Butts – second in the F3 class with a time of 44.51.7, Susan
Holway – second on the F5 class (52.24.4), Ann Mize – second in the F6 class
with a time of 52.35.0 and Tom Gibbons – second in the M11 class with a time
of 1.23.41 (15 km).