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Though there are many storylines to tomorrow's 30km freestyle mass start race, a dominant one is whether Aino-Kaisa Saarinen can make the podium and thus earn a medal in every event at the Liberec Worlds. A win and a fourth gold would put her ahead of the three-gold hauls of teammate Kuitunen at the '07 Sapporo Worlds and Marit Bjoergen at the '05 Oberstdorf Worlds.I don't think the gold is in
Liberec, Czech Republic – The Finnish team defended their World Championship title in the women’s 4×5 kilometer relay this morning, behind a strong anchor leg from Aino-Kaisa Saarinen. Germany took the silver in a sprint finish with Sweden. The favored Finns appeared to be on pace for an easy victory, on par with the Team Sprint yesterday. Pirjo Muranen, the bronze medalist in the individual sprint, skied the first leg. She tagged off in second,...
Pinkham Notch, NH— On Sunday March 8, 2009, Great Glen Trails will host Ski to the Clouds: North America’s Toughest 10k presented by Maxiglide. The race features a climb of more than 2200 vertical feet over nearly 4 miles up the Mt. Washington Auto Road. In 2008, more than 70 racers, including Olympians and top college skiers, took on the challenge of Ski to the Clouds. Last year was also the first year of the...
I'm bummed that Petra Majdic is leaving Liberec without a medal, because she seems pretty cool, as this English-language interview from Swedish TV shows. The bit at 2:20 about the origins of her famous excitability is especially great.
The women's relay was an incredible contest: Kowalcyzk going out harder than hard at the start, Japan hanging in third place deep into the third leg, Steira skating so fast that she closed down a 31.8s gap to Finland in just 3500 meters, giving Kristoffersen an 8.2s lead at the start of the fourth leg. And then the fourth-leg war between Kristoffersen, Saarinen, Nystad, and Kalla - wow. Every
It is a bit late this week, but if you missed the collegiate results form last weekend, here you go! EISA and RMISA action. Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Championships The University of New Mexico ski team ended an 16-year drought and won the 2009 NCAA West Regional/Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Championships today with 565 points, beating out perennial favorite Colorado, host Nevada and 2008 NCAA champion Denver for the title. Sophomore Simon Reissmann...
by Christa Case Bryant As a spunky teen who entered bodybuilding competitions, skied 74 miles an hour downhill to win the Alaska speed-skiing competition, and nearly ran a sub-5-minute mile, Kikkan Randall acquired the nickname “Kikkanimal.” It stuck, and it should. No one makes it to the top echelons of cross-country skiing, where the world’s fittest women wage battle in a scrum of flying skis, without a certain ferocity. That attitude, plus a decade of...
Liberec, Czech Republic – Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Virpi Kuitunen skied away from the competition to bring home the gold for Finland in the women’s classic Team Sprint competition. The pair posted a 20 second victory over Silver medalists Sweden. Italy was another 3.8 seconds back to take the bronze. Saarinen and Kuitunen set a fast pace early, stringing out the pack on the first lap. Their lead was 3.5 seconds after one lap, and a...
Man, the sprint events have been good appetizers* for the main course: the four days that include the women's and men's relays (Thursday and Friday) and the 30km and 50km freestyle mass start races (Saturday and Sunday). The Vasaloppet - effectively the world ski marathon championships - occurs on Sunday, too, as a sort of dessert.The women's relays are almost always good for a surprise and some
Debbie Randall, Kikkan's mother, was up at 3am watching the live timing updates on the FIS web site. "It's excruciating, it's awful! I get twice as nervous as she does."
Liberec, Czech Republic – The Norweigan duo of Ola Vigen Hattestad and Johan Kjoelstad took the gold in the men’s Team Sprint competition this morning, a day after finishing first and second in the individual sprint. Tobias Angerer and Axel Teichmann claimed silver for German in a photo finish with the Finnish team of Ville Nousiainen and Sami Jauhojaervi. As is often the case in team sprint events, the lead pack remained tightly grouped throughout...
The Sven Johansson, the final race in the AMH Anchorage Cup, is nicknamed as "The Tour of Kincaid", because the course tackles just about every big climb in the park-- Stairway to Heaven, Hairpin, Ice Box, Elliots Climb, Burky's climb, Lekisch, you name it.Several of the elite women got the honor of starting in the elite men's wave, which made for a more interesting and exciting race. Once the
The website was down there for a bit, but we’re back now. It would be nice to pretend that all the web traffic after the 15K crashed the server, but that’s not the case. The host got changed and I screwed up the nameserver something or other. Managed to lose some content along the way [...]
Harry Johnson was Kikkan Randall’s high school coach and watched her transition from talented runner to professional nordic skier during those early years. He was nice enough to answer some questions about Kikkan as a budding athlete in light of her recent astounding success today at the World Championships in Liberec. A local coaching legend, he turned a near-dead high school program into one of the most successful in the state of Alaska in only...
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Sometimes I miss those days, the days of top race fitness, when I felt like I could throw down anywhere, anytime. I remember finishing up my senior season of racing in college, and joining the cycling team for some intervals a couple of weeks later after barely riding a bike all winter. I remember throwing [...]
New England Espy and Freeman Win TD Banknorth Silver Fox Trot (source: nensa.net) Posted by: Link to Today’s Results Link to J2 Qualifier Standings Class Results Overall Results for 15Km and 30Km, with leg times for 30Km Anchorage Cup: Sven Johansson 30K “Tour Of Kincaid” By Patrick Stinson The Sven Johansson 30K was held Sunday under sunny skies at Kincaid Park in Anchorage. The day was marked by great weather and relatively fast, old snow...
With the 2009 Nordic World Championships passing the halfway mark, it has already been an historic week. Three golds, a silver, and a bronze, with plenty of racing still to go. You can watch all the events on demand at Universal Sports – Kikkan Randall’s silver, Todd Lodwick’s two golds, Billy Demong’s bronze, and Lindsey Van’s gold. All completed races are currently online for viewing (as of Tuesday night).