FasterSkier · March 22, 2005
It has been the Team Norway doing most of the celebrating in the Junior World Ski Championships so far. It was a great day for Norway once again on Wednesday as Even Sletten took gold in the Cross Country sprint competition. Thus, the Norwegians have won all the five gold medals in these games.
In the final stretch of 920 meter track, Sletten was able to hold off teammate Petter Northug, who finished second. Emil Jonsson, from Sweden, finished third.
Lassila is mainly a sprinter and he won the short race in the Junior Finnish Ski Championships this season.
– I'm a little bit pissed off. It's just that it seemed my pace would've been enough for a medal, Lassila said.
Olli-Pekka Tolvanen rounded up a solid Finnish performance by finishing eighth.
The fourth team member, Lari Lehtonen, was surprisingly only 51st.
Tolvanen was eighth also in the JWSC in Stryn last year.
– It was a good day, but still far from excellent. I really tried my best after I saw the guys go down in the semi final before mine, but I guess my effort was just not enough, Tolvanen said.
Brent McMurtry (CAN) was the top North American in 20th place. Teammate Christopher Werrell was 23rd. Americans Tyson Flaharty (25), Michael Sinnott (28), and Dakota Blackhorse Von Jess (29) also qualified for the elimination heats with top 30 placement in the prelims.
Other North Americans:
41. Alex Harvey CAN
46. Casey Simons USA
67. Christopher Butler CAN
FULL RESULTS: http://www.jwsc2005.net/listat/CCMen%20SprintOfficialResults.pdf
PRELIM RESULTS: http://www.jwsc2005.net/listat/CrossCountryMenSprintQualificationResults.pdf
CC Sprint Ladies 23.3.05
The young Norwegian Kari Vikhagen Gjeitnes celebrated a great victory in the Cross Country Sprint Competition of the FIS Nordic Junior Ski World Championships that took place on Wednesday, the 23rd of March. She won the gold medal and through this became the new Junior World Champion, second was her teammate Astrid Jacobsen and Ida Ingemarsdotter from Sweden completed the scandinavian Trio by skiing to the bronze medal.
-I had a bad start today and felt very sick after the qualification, Jacobsen said. For her luck there was enough time to feel better until the quarter finals started.
The best Finnish starters, Ulla Kiili, Sanna Soudunsaari and Kaisa Pesonen, unfortunately couldn’t qualify for higher than quarter finals, which brought them to the positions 14, 17 and 26. The fourth and last member of the Finnish team, Emilia Soudunsaari, could already pack her bags after the Qualification round.
Perianne Jones of Canada was the only North American woman to advance to the elimination heats. She was knocked out in the quarterfinals to finish 15th, the best North American result of the Championships so far.
34. Morgan Smyth USA
37. Amanda Ammar CAN
41. Tazlina Mannix USA
59. Elizabeth Stephen USA
61. Kaitlyn McElroy USA
RESULTS: http://www.jwsc2005.net/listat/CCLadiesSprintOfficialResults.pdf
PRELIM RESULTS: http://www.jwsc2005.net/listat/Cross%20CountryWomenSprintQualificationResults.pdf
2.3.2005
Lassila quickest in the qualification!
Finland's Kalle Lassila clocked the best time in the qualification of the Cross Country sprint competition in the Junior World Ski Championships on Wednesday.
Lassila finished the 920 meter route in classical style in the time of 1.48,28 minutes.
Second in the morning's qualification was Russian Mickail Devjatiarov Jr. and Even Sletten, from Norway, was third. Petter Northug, the winner of pursuit competition on Monday, finished fourth.
Finland had three skiers in the top ten, since Matias Strandvall was fifth and Olli-Pekka Tolvanen finished eighth. Lari Lehtonen was 51st, and so he didn't make the cut for the quarter-finals, which includes the 30 best competitors of the qualification.
In the girls competition Kari Vikhagen Gjeitnes from Norway was quickest. She was followed by Astrid Jacobsen, also from Norway. Third was Russia´s Julia Ivanova.
Ulla Kiili (13th) was the only skier from the home country who made it to the quarter-finals.
The finals will start at 12 a.m. local time.
Source: www.jwsc2005.net
