USST Head Coach Pete Vordenberg comments on yesterday's World Cup classic sprint in Otepaa, Estonia. Andy Newell qualified in 14th and finished 28th. Kikkan Randall finished 25th.
Men's Race Report
Women's Race Report
“We've got some work to do,” U.S. Head Coach Pete Vordenberg said. “I'm not sure what the problem is, or was, but we missed some opportunities today. Andy was dominating his heat, leading all the way, and then with about 150 meters left everyone blew by him. And Kikkan qualifying [i.e., top 30 in the time trial to determine matchups for the finals heats] in classic was good, but overall it wasn't a good day.
“It was rainy, the snow was chunky…but there are no excuses. We should have done better. Everyone skied in the rain, and over the same snow. We had excellent skis, so that wasn't the problem, either.”
The next stop on the World Cup schedule is Liberec, Czech Republic, host of the 2009 FIS Nordic World Championships. Next weekend's schedule calls for men's 15K and women's 10K freestyle races Saturday – replacing pursuits because of the lack of snow – and classic technique team sprints Sunday.
Source: USSA
