 was the only other North American to make the head-to-head elimination rounds in the men's race, and finished fifth in his quarterfinal, 10.6 seconds back from the leader of that heat.</p><p>Newell topped the list after the qualification run, finishing 0.22 seconds faster than Norwegian veteran Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset. The Vermont native then raced his way into the six-man A-final, finishing second in his quarterfinal and third in his semi-final. Newell was 5.6 seconds from the win, behind silver-medal winner Mats Larsson of Sweden, bronze medalist Eldar Roenning of Norway, and last year's overall World Cup sprint champion Bjorn Lind of Sweden.</p><p><center><img decoding=)
Newell Fifth in World Championships Sprint
FasterSkier · February 22, 2007
In the women's competition, Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team) led the way for North Americans with a 22nd overall finish just ahead of U.S. rookie Laura Valaas in 24th. Randall qualified in 21st and Valaas 23rd before each finished fifth in their respective quarterfinals. Valaas was only 1.4 seconds from the leader of her heat at the finish, while Randall finished 7.6 seconds behind Petra Majdic of Slovenia, who crossed the line first in her quarterfinal. Majdic went on to claim silver in a photo-finish ahead of the pre-race favorite, Virpi Kuitunen of Finland. It was Norway's young upstart Astrid Jacobsen who took home the gold, making it a double-gold day for Norway.
Among several other North Americans competing in the opening event were Canadians Chandra Crawford (32nd) and Sean Crooks (31st), and Chris Cook of the U.S. Ski Team in 32nd.
Heat results: http://livetiming.usskiteam.com/public/livetiming_calendar.php?aId=89
Official FIS results: http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/1228.html?event_id=22246&cal_suchsector=CC