Kristina Smigun (Estonia) won the opening cross country race of the Torino Olympic Games today by outsprinting Katerina Neumannova of the Czech Republic for the Gold in the women's 15K Pursuit race. Russian Evgenia Medvedeva-Abruzova took the bronze medal.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was that Marit Bjoergen (NOR), who was fighting bronchitis up until a week ago, dropped out after about 5K.
Beckie Scott was in the lead pack until about halfway through the skate leg, when she faded to finish 6th. Sara Renner finished 16th. Rebecca Dussault placed 48th to lead the United States effort at Pragelato Plan. Her time of 47:53.7 was 5:05.0 behind gold medalist Smigun.
Other American finishes, with place, time and margin behind the winner: Lindsey Weier (Mahtomedi, Minn.), 55th, 48:45.0, +5:56.3; Abby Larson (Bozeman, Mont.), 56th, 48:47.5, +5:58.8; and Lindsey Williams (Hastings, Mont.), 62nd, 50:49.7, +8:01.0.
Scott and teammate Sara Renner set the pace early on in the classic leg and looked strong. A pack of about 12 stayed together for much of the classic, while Bjorgen and other favorites like Julia Tchepalova (RUS) dropped off the pace. Bjoergen was about 30 seconds back when she pulled over and called it quits. Renner eventually dropped from the leaders herself, but held her position in the teens.
At the transition, Petra Majdic was leading followed by Smigun, Neumannova, Pedersen and the rest of the pack, including Scott.
The lead pack played tactical cat and mouse for the first half of the skate leg, until Neumannova moved to the front and put the hammer down. This was too much for Beckie, and she was unable to stay with the leaders. Neumannova was looking very strong with only Smigun, Kristin Stormer Steira, and Medvedeva-Abruzova able to hang with her.
Beckie was able to get close again when Neumannova pulled aside to let someone else lead with about two kilometers to go. But eventually Smigun reluctantly took the lead and the chase was on, and Beckie dropped back again.
Coming into the finish, Neumannova was in the lead and looked to be in control, but Smigun had a strong finishing kick to pass the Czech and win the gold.
Women's 15km Pursuit Sunday, February 12, 2006 -- Pragelato Plan Unofficial RANK COUNTRY NAME 1 EST SMIGUN Kristina 42:48.7 -- 2 CZE NEUMANNOVA Katerina 42:50.6 1.9 3 RUS MEDVEDEVA-ABRUZOVA Evgenia 43:03.2 14.5 4 NOR STEIRA Kristin Stormer 43:06.8 18.1 5 ITA PARUZZI Gabriella 43:18.9 30.2 6 CAN SCOTT Beckie 43:20.6 31.9 7 RUS SAVIALOVA Olga 43:23.7 35 8 POL KOWALCZYK Justyna 43:25.6 36.9 9 RUS TCHEPALOVA Yulia 43:39.5 50.8 10 NOR PEDERSEN Hilde G. 43:40.5 51.8 11 SLO MAJDIC Petra 43:41.7 53 12 KAZ MALAHOVA-SHISHKINA Svetlana 44:00.0 +1:11.3 13 FIN LASSILA Riitta Liisa 44:06.1 +1:17.4 14 UKR SHEVCHENKO Valentina 44:13.6 +1:24.9 15 SWE NORGREN Britta 44:18.0 +1:29.3 16 CAN RENNER Sara 44:30.9 +1:42.2 17 ITA VALBUSA Sabina 44:44.7 +1:56.0 18 GER KUENZEL Claudia 44:48.1 +1:59.4 19 NOR STEMLAND Kristin Murer 44:59.2 +2:10.5 20 FRA PHILIPPOT Karine 45:06.5 +2:17.8 21 CHN WANG Chunli 45:09.6 +2:20.9 22 ITA CONFORTOLA Antonella 45:11.9 +2:23.2 23 CZE JANECKOVA Ivana 45:33.5 +2:44.8 24 SUI LEONARDI CORTESI Natascia 45:34.3 +2:45.6 25 KAZ KOLOMINA Elena 45:44.1 +2:55.4 26 UKR JAKIMCHUK Vita 45:48.1 +2:59.4 27 CHN LI Hongxue 45:56.4 +3:07.7 28 GER BOEHLER Stefanie 45:56.9 +3:08.2 29 CZE BALATKOVA ERBENOVA Helena 45:57.0 +3:08.3 30 JPN YOKOYAMA Sumiko 45:58.6 +3:09.9 31 SWE EK Elin 46:02.7 +3:14.0 32 CHN LIU Yuanyuan 46:18.5 +3:29.8 33 FIN HIETAMAEKI Elina 46:20.5 +3:31.8 34 FIN VALIMAA Kirsi 46:25.6 +3:36.9 35 JPN ISHIDA Masako 46:37.7 +3:49.0 36 ITA FOLLIS Arianna 46:40.9 +3:52.2 37 RUS BURUKHINA Elena 46:42.9 +3:54.2 38 JPN SONETA Chizuru 46:45.5 +3:56.8 39 SLO BENEDICIC Maja 46:51.1 +4:02.4 40 UKR GRYGORENKO Kateryna 46:55.2 +4:06.5 41 KAZ JATSKAJA Oxana 46:57.0 +4:08.3 42 AUS BRUMLEY Clare-Louise 47:03.1 +4:14.4 43 BLR SANNIKOVA Alena 47:05.6 +4:16.9 44 BLR KOROLIK SHABLOUSKAYA Ludmila 47:07.2 +4:18.5 45 UKR ZAVALIJ Tatjana 47:18.7 +4:30.0 46 SVK PROCHAZKOVA Alena 47:45.2 +4:56.5 47 SWE STROMSTEDT Anna Karin 47:51.3 +5:02.6 48 USA DUSSAULT Rebecca 47:53.7 +5:05.0 49 BLR RUDAKOVA BULAUKA Ekaterina 48:09.2 +5:20.5 50 KAZ VOLOSHENKO Yevgeniya 48:17.2 +5:28.5 51 BLR VASILJONOK Olga 48:20.4 +5:31.7 52 GER HENKEL Manuela 48:21.8 +5:33.1 53 LTU TERENTJEVA Irina 48:33.7 +5:45.0 54 CAN THERIAULT Milaine 48:38.9 +5:50.2 55 USA WEIER Lindsey 48:45.0 +5:56.3 56 USA LARSON Abigail 48:47.5 +5:58.8 57 KOR LEE Chae-Won 49:01.2 +6:12.5 58 CHN XU Yinghui 49:47.3 +6:58.6 59 ROM GYORGY Monika 50:15.3 +7:26.6 60 CAN CRAWFORD Chandra 50:35.4 +7:46.7 61 ESP AUBERT TORRENTS Laia 50:41.3 +7:52.6 62 USA WILLIAMS Lindsey 50:49.7 +8:01.0 63 ESP ORGUE Laura 51:16.5 +8:27.8 64 CRO KEZELE Maja 51:36.3 +8:47.6 NOR BJORGEN Marit DNF TUR AYDIN Kelime DNF SCG KUZELJEVC Branka DNF
Sources: Toroc, Eurosport, USOC
