Italian 1-2 In World Championship Opener

Today, Italian teammates Pietro Piller Cottrer and Fulvio Valbusa out-skied every world-class athlete who started the 15km skate race at the World Championships in Oberstdorf.

Norwegian biathlete Lars Berger had taken the lead early on in the individual start “race against the clock.” Berger's time was good enough to hold off some of the favorites such as Vincent Vittoz, Axel Teichmann, and Lukas Bauer. However Piller Cottrer and Valbusa attacked the tough climbs with fast tempos that nobody else could match. Valbusa finished 11.2 seconds behind Piller Cottrer's winning time of 34:49.7.

Lars Berger ended up with a strong 4th place result. However this was not the top Norwegian performance of the day; the young Norwegian Tore Ruud Hofstad won the second individual World Championship medal of his career, taking third behind Valbusa. Hofstad won silver two years ago in the pursuit at the Val di Fiemme World Championships, where Piller Cottrer and Valbusa had somewhat dissapointing performances on home turf.

Two of the pre-race favorites, Vincent Vittoz and Axel Teichmann finished 6th and 7th, respectively.

The fastest North American in the men's race today was Andrew Johnson of the U.S. Ski Team. Johnson finished 46th, less than 20 seconds outside the top thirty. The top Canadian was Chris Jeffries in 56th, just ahead of Lars Flora (U.S. – 57th.) Other North American results: Dan Roycroft (Canada – 64th), Gordon Jewett (Canada – 69th), James Southam (U.S. – 70th), and Drew Goldsack (Canada – 77th). Australian skiers Ben Derrick, Ben Sim, and Andrew Mock finished 80th, 81st, and 84th respectively in a field of 122 racers.

The American team has been battling sickness. Reports out of Oberstdorf are that Kris Freeman and Carl Swenson both are trying to recover from flu-like symptoms, while Head Coach Trond Nystad is als sick.

The snow conditions were excellent today on a course that many described as one of the hardest they'd ever seen.

The next race at the World Championships will be the women's double pursuit on Saturday, with the men's pursuit following on Sunday.

1 108 Piller Cottrer Pietro ITA 34:49.7 0.0 2 120 Valbusa Fulvio ITA 35:00.9 +11.2 3 109 Hofstad Tore Ruud NOR 35:03.9 +14.2 4 63 Berger Lars NOR 35:06.6 +16.9 5 113 Bauer Lukas CZE 35:08.3 +18.6 6 117 Vittoz Vincent FRA 35:08.7 +19.0 7 118 Teichmann Axel GER 35:16.2 +26.5 8 107 Filbrich Jens GER 35:25.8 +36.1 9 74 Kattilakoski Teemu FIN 35:28.3 +38.6 10 119 Bajcicak Martin SVK 35:29.4 +39.7 11 91 Bjoerndalen Ole Einar NOR 35:30.6 +40.9 12 93 Bolchakov Nikolaj RUS 35:42.3 +52.6 13 89 Goering Franz GER 35:42.7 +53.0 14 111 Di Centa Giorgio ITA 35:42.9 +53.2 15 105 Soedergren Anders SWE 35:47.9 +58.2 16 88 Fischer Remo SUI 35:48.8 +59.1 17 95 Zorzi Cristian ITA 35:54.8 +1:05.1 18 106 Magal Jiri CZE 35:55.4 +1:05.7 19 114 Angerer Tobias GER 35:55.5 +1:05.8 20 77 Jonnier Emmanuel FRA 35:59.6 +1:09.9 21 45 Livers Toni SUI 36:02.2 +1:12.5 22 115 Rotchev Vassili RUS 36:08.2 +1:18.5 23 121 Dementiev Evgenji RUS 36:09.3 +1:19.6 24 83 Odnodvortsev Maxim KAZ 36:09.5 +1:19.8 25 58 Rousselet Alexandre FRA 36:13.4 +1:23.7 26 79 Hasler Markus LIE 36:15.7 +1:26.0 27 51 Vilarrubla Vicente SPA 36:17.8 +1:28.1 28 44 Ohtonen Olli FIN 36:27.6 +1:37.9 29 50 Andresen Jan Egil NOR 36:28.2 +1:38.5 30 49 Eder Johannes AUT 36:29.0 +1:39.3 31 68 Urain Gerhard AUT 36:31.8 +1:42.1 32 76 Lallukka Juha FIN 36:32.9 +1:43.2 33 97 Leybyuk Roman UKR 36:33.3 +1:43.6 34 112 Sommerfeldt Rene GER 36:33.4 +1:43.7 35 84 Chebotko Nikolay KAZ 36:34.1 +1:44.4 36 75 Dolidowitsch Sergei BLR 36:36.0 +1:46.3 37 100 Gutierrez Juan J. SPA 36:37.5 +1:47.8 38 82 Lasutkin Alexander BLR 36:38.7 +1:49.0 38 116 Fredriksson Mathias SWE 36:38.7 +1:49.0 40 54 Kreczmer Maciej POL 36:40.3 +1:50.6 41 62 Michl Petr CZE 36:43.9 +1:54.2 42 87 Diethard Roland AUT 36:44.1 +1:54.4 43 98 Bundi Gion Andrea SUI 36:45.5 +1:55.8 44 71 Vorobiev Denis BLR 36:47.8 +1:58.1 45 59 Jauhojaervi Sami FIN 36:48.0 +1:58.3 46 94 Johnson Andrew USA 36:48.9 +1:59.2 47 92 Olsson Johan SWE 36:49.5 +1:59.8 48 73 Ruiz Diego SPA 36:57.9 +2:08.2 49 66 Legkov Alexander RUS 36:59.7 +2:10.0 50 53 Eremenko Dimirij KAZ 37:09.5 +2:19.8 51 52 Chauvet Benoit FRA 37:11.6 +2:21.9 52 61 Stebler Christian SUI 37:13.1 +2:23.4 53 101 Koukal Martin CZE 37:15.1 +2:25.4 54 99 Brodar Nejc SLO 37:28.0 +2:38.3 55 42 Putsko Olexandr UKR 37:32.7 +2:43.0 56 81 Jefferies Chris CAN 37:35.8 +2:46.1 57 40 Flora Lars USA 37:39.8 +2:50.1 58 55 Golovko Andrei KAZ 37:48.1 +2:58.4 59 90 Antal Zsolt ROM 37:53.6 +3:03.9 60 85 Gumenyak Mikhail UKR 37:54.5 +3:04.8 61 80 Malak Michal SVK 37:56.5 +3:06.8 62 86 Kanamaru Tomio JPN 37:59.1 +3:09.4 63 70 Larsson Mats SWE 38:05.1 +3:15.4 64 104 Roycroft Dan CAN 38:05.2 +3:15.5 65 65 Moeller Martin Troels DAN 38:07.5 +3:17.8 65 103 Kokk Kaspar EST 38:07.5 +3:17.8 67 57 Saito Ryo JPN 38:20.3 +3:30.6 68 47 Ivanov Aleksey BLR 38:26.2 +3:36.5 69 64 Jewett Gordon CAN 38:29.2 +3:39.5 70 56 Southam James USA 38:34.1 +3:44.4 71 22 Ye Tian CHN 38:41.8 +3:52.1 72 30 Geliang Li CHN 38:45.4 +3:55.7 73 60 Martsyv Vitaly UKR 38:53.7 +4:04.0 74 102 Krezelok Janusz POL 38:59.8 +4:10.1 75 35 Spalvins Intars LAT 39:06.5 +4:16.8 76 78 Novoselki Aleksei LTU 39:21.5 +4:31.8 77 48 Goldsack Drew CAN 39:21.9 +4:32.2 78 2 Olsen Jonas DAN 39:25.8 +4:36.1 79 69 Eui-Myung Jung KOR 39:32.1 +4:42.4 80 96 Derrick Ben AUS 39:34.7 +4:45.0 81 67 Sim Ben AUS 39:46.8 +4:57.1 82 8 Dawei Han CHN 39:46.9 +4:57.2 83 43 Mock Andrew AUS 39:54.3 +5:04.6 84 72 Benka-Rybar Ondrej SVK 40:12.1 +5:22.4 85 21 Bariakov Ivan BUL 40:14.3 +5:24.6 86 36 Veselin Tzinzov BUL 40:18.4 +5:28.7 87 46 Oglago Sebahattin TUR 40:19.3 +5:29.6 88 25 Zhiguang Li CHN 40:24.2 +5:34.5 89 5 Galiteanu Mihai ROM 40:29.2 +5:39.5 90 14 Tagscherer Zoltan HUN 40:38.5 +5:48.8 91 3 Kirilarslan Muhammet TUR 40:43.0 +5:53.3 92 20 Eiduks Valts LAT 40:44.5 +5:54.8 93 15 Jurcevic Damir CRO 40:45.3 +5:55.6 94 37 Soerensen Sebastian DAN 40:50.0 +6:00.3 95 10 Milenkovic Aleksander SCG 40:57.1 +6:07.4 96 29 Sukaruks Janis LAT 41:05.6 +6:15.9 97 19 Kraas Oliver RSA 41:14.7 +6:25.0 98 11 Klobucar Denis CRO 41:17.3 +6:27.6 99 18 Jakobsson Jakob ISL 41:22.2 +6:32.5 100 26 Kuzmin Daniel ISR 41:36.8 +6:47.1 101 41 Murray Paul AUS 41:54.4 +7:04.7 102 34 Tupytzin Vladimir ISR 42:04.6 +7:14.9 103 32 Yildirim Erkan TUR 42:09.9 +7:20.2 104 39 Oglago Burhan TUR 42:11.0 +7:21.3 105 12 Langer Thorsten BEL 42:40.5 +7:50.8 106 16 Khachatryan Edmond ARM 42:53.3 +8:03.6 107 28 Icoski Gjoko MKD 43:31.2 +8:41.5 108 38 Sargsyan Hovhannes ARM 43:36.6 +8:46.9 109 24 Langer Stephan BEL 43:58.0 +9:08.3 110 27 Bentouni Noureddine ALG 44:23.3 +9:33.6 111 31 Eason Alan GBR 44:23.5 +9:33.8 112 17 Khah-Erdene Khurebaatar MGL 45:33.8 +10:44.1 113 4 Bianchi Martin ARG 46:00.2 +11:10.5 114 23 Spaseski Ile MKD 46:03.3 +11:13.6 115 1 Jovanoski Borce MKD 46:28.1 +11:38.4 116 7 ILIESKI Igor MKD 46:29.2 +11:39.5 117 6 Rastic Damir SCG 46:46.3 +11:56.6 118 13 Morrish Rory IRL 51:41.7 +16:52.0 119 130 Ibaline Lhoucine MAR 53:23.1 +18:33.4 120 33 Silva Danny POR 54:22.2 +19:32.5 121 9 Freitas Helio BRA 57:29.1 +22:39.4 122 125 Aitboubella Brahim MAR 58:22.8 +23:33.1 DNS 110 Hoffmann Christian AUT