When Simi Hamilton lost a pole and was bounced from his quarterfinal heat, it was up to Ida Sargent to salvage the American hopes in the U-23 skate sprint. She didn’t disappoint.
After qualifying in fourth, Sargent advanced easily through the quarters and semis, faltering only midway through the A-final. After some bad luck and tactical errors by the Americans over the last two days, you could almost hear the sigh of relief from her coaches and teammates.
“Before that A-final, I thought Ida could win that thing,” said Pat Casey, head coach of the American U-23 squad. “I talked to her about it, and she thought she could win that thing, too.”
Sargent was “unbeatable” off the line all day, Casey said, and the final was no different—she was in front headed into the first corner before Mari Laukkanen (FIN) got by. But on the way up the last big climb, she started running out of gas, and Denise Herrmann (GER) and Kathrine Rolsted Harsem (NOR) snuck past.
Laukkanen was well clear of the group by the finish, but Sargent was still close with the others as the group entered the stadium. She just couldn’t quite match the pace at the finish.
“I got a little tired on the second hill, so I lost some time there,” she said, “but I was able to pull it together…I feel like I’m right in there, so it was a really fun day.”
Laukkanen won the qualifier by over a second, then proceeded to sweep every heat en route to her victory, improving on her third place finish in last year’s U-23 classic sprint in France.