The last two events at the 2007 Sapporo World Championships are the 30km and 50km classic mass-start races. The women race tonight (11:30pm ET/tomorrow at 1:30pm Sapporo time), and the men on Saturday night at the same time.
Women's Race: The big favorite among bookmakers at Nordicbet.com is Virpi Kuitinen of Finland, followed by team-mate Aino Kaisa Saarinen. Marit Bjorgen is third on the bookmaker list.
The FasterSkier.com staff agrees with the top two picks but believes that Petra Majdic, Olga Savialova, and Valentina Schevchenko all have a good shoot at gold! We (Fasterskier.com crew) also agree that Marit Bjorgen needs a miracle to dig herself out of her slump and get a medal at this point of the Championships. A miracle could of course come in the form of another snowstorm!
It’s hard to believe that any of the North Americans can be top-30 following disappointing relay results for both USA and Canada, but we are crossing our fingers!
Men’s Race: Odds for the 50km men's race are not up yet, but the Germans are in shape and want to strike back after a very disappointing 4 x 10km relay. Neither Angerer nor Teichmann will give an inch. Norway is on a roll and is flying high after winning the men’s relay. Vasaloppet champion and classic specialist Anders Aukland (NOR) has put all his eggs in one basket and prepared for this race for the past six weeks. He will be ready and will go from broke! One can bet Frode Estil is hungry for revenge after having been kicked off the Norwegian relay team. It’s time to prove everyone wrong — and that’s good motivation! Who else? Anders Sodergren of Sweden will be tough, but might be tired from the relay and has historically come up short at the end. Add a couple Russians, one Estonian, and possibly one more Swede and one surprising Finn…. and we could see one heck of a 50km!!!
