Torin Koos advanced out of the qualification round, posting the 20th fastest time of the morning. The classic sprints, held in downtown Stockholm, featured an incredibly difficult field. As has become the norm, the Norweigans dominated the men's qualification round, placing 10 skiers in the top 30, led by the fastest qualifier, Boerre Naess. Naess completed the course in a time of 2:12.11. Koos finished 4.28 seconds back.
The host nation qualified four, including the second and third fastest – Olympic Champion Bjoern Lind and the winner of the skate sprint in Canmore, Emil Joensson.
Andy Newell finished 35th, +6.90 and .6 seconds out of the final qualifying spot. Chris Cook was 40th +7.29 and Garrott Kuzzy 68th +15.72 in the 72 skier race.
Without top skier Devon Kershaw racing, the Candadian men were unable to qualify anyone for this afternoon's heats. Stefan Kuhn led the way with his 42nd, +7.67. His teammates Drew Goldsack and Phil Widmer finished 50th and 63rd respectively.
The Canadian women fared better, with Chandra Crawford taking the 28th qualification spot, just under 9 seconds behind Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) who posted the fastest time of the morning. Sara Renner had her streak of World Cup point scoring races come to end when she just missed qualifying. Renner finished 31st, .13 seconds out of the last qualification spot. Sarah Daitch also finished just outside the top 30, posting an impressive 34th, under a second out of the top 30. This is Daitch's first year skiing World Cup races. She finished 19th in the freestyle sprint in Canmore last month.
Madeleine Williams was the final Canadian woman, finishing 55th in the 58 woman field.
No American women qualified. Kikkan Randall led the way in 45th place. Randall, who has been steadily improving her classic sprinting, finished just under 13 seconds behind Kuitunen, and 4 seconds out of qualifying.
Laura Valaas, the only other American woman to start, was 53rd.
There was significantly more balance in the women's results – Germany had the most qualifiers with 5. Norway and Finland both qualified four, with Finland taking three of the top six spots. The host nation only managed two in the top 30, led by Lina Andersson in 16th. Tour de SKi winner Charlotte Kalla was back in 49th place.
Aurore Cuinet (FRA) qualified in 27th, the day after winning the silver in the 10km classic at the U23 World Championships in Italy.
The heats will be held this afternoon.
