Up-and-coming star of the US Development Team, Leif Zimmerman found the necessary speed to come home first in the SuperTour freestyle sprint race held today at the Telemark Resort in Cable, Wisconsin. Just behind him, the battle for second place resulted in one of the closest SuperTour finishes in recent memory. Zimmerman's teammate Chris Cook out-lunged former National Sprint Champion Lars Flora by less than two inches in a photo finish. <Check out the photo!
Making the A-final and posting the best Canadian result of the day was Phil Widmer of the large Canadian National Team. Widmer came in with the fastest qualification time before ending up 4th. Team Atomic's Zack Simons, who was recently the winner of the prestigous Capitol Square Sprints in downtown Madison Wisconsin, took control of the B-final to end up 5th overall.
By definition, the majority of the entrants in the SuperTour men's race today finished the qualifying round in the top 16 to move on to the heats. Only 24 athletes competed. However, this is probably the toughest collection of 24 racers currently to be found anywhere in North America.
The Telemark Resort will host the next two SuperTour races this weekend: a 10k classic and 15k freestyle mass-start.
Results — Telemark SuperTour, Men's Freestyle Sprint:
1 Zimmerman, Leif 1 247 US Devo 5623079 3530041
2 Cook, Chris 2 241 US Devo 5313697 1334720
3 Flora, Lars 3 242 Subaru Factory Team 4447959 1196883
4 Widmer, Phil 4 248 Canadian national team 3100042
5 Simons, Zack 5 244 Atomic/Swix 5102876 1366051
6 Haugen, Anders 6 251 TorbjornSport I5269899 3530159
7 Crooks, Sean 7 249 Canadian National Ski Team 3100017
8 Hochtl, Kevin 8 261 Team Rossignol R4882973 3530151
9 Scott, Steve 9 245 MWSC 5915707 3530157
10 Babikov, Ivan 10 256 Factory Team 3480047
11 Kallen-Brown, Jed 11 258 UAF A5623731 4132 3530258
12 Dyck, Casey 12 250 Canadian National Team 3100056
13 Rodgers, Colin 13 267 MWSC E5473731 1335011
14 Churikov, Alexander 14 268 Rossignol/RSSS X6034169 3480083
15 Jacobson, Erik 15 253 XC Oregon/ Fischer 5398045
16 Flaharty, Tyson 16 255 UAF A5262472 4131
17 Keefe, Tom 17 252 00:02:29.23 MWSC e5501085
18 Watt, Andre 18 260 00:02:31.10 RSSS/Rosneft C5351903 3530049
19 Spurkland, Jan 19 269 00:02:34.77 XC oregon/Atomic p5516638 3530046
20 Greene, Marshall 20 257 00:02:35.29 Alpina/ XC Oregon/ Madshus 5210273
21 Savoie, Mike 21 264 00:02:40.37 Factory Team 4846093 1201442
22 Wickstrom, Erik 22 266 00:02:41.28 UAF X5880307 4136 3500046
23 Wynd, Andrew 23 263 00:02:41.76 Austraila Ski Team 3040012
24 Menyoli, Isaac 24 265 00:03:56.61 Cameroon Ski Team 3900000
