On the eve of Junior Olympic athletes arriving in Tahoe-Truckee, four feet of snow has fallen in the last 24 hours. This means one thing—there will be plenty of snow for the races. More snow was expected before 10 a.m. Wednesday with a 30-40 percent chance of snow Thursday and Friday. Monday, the first day of competition, there is a slight chance of snow with high near 32 degrees. Weather will clear on Tuesday.
xcjuniorolympics2009.org Schedule of Events Sunday March 8 3 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. Opening Ceremonies at Truckee High School with guest speaker, extreme skier and global cooling consultant Alison Gannett Monday March 9 Freestyle sprint races 9 a.m. – 10:55 a.m. qualification heats Noon– 2:50 p.m. quarter, semis and finals Wednesday March 11 9 a.m. – 12:40 p.m. Freestyle races 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Awards Banquet at Alder Creek Middle School Friday March 13 9...
Erik Bjornsen of Mazama, WA is the top ranked J1 skier on the FIS Sprint List. This list is based on FIS points. While the master sprint list (including all World Cup athletes) is a good indicator of speed in that FIS sprint points are based on qualifying times, the J1 list is clearly missing many top athletes. This could be due to the fact that J1s do not compete in many FIS scoring races....
January 25th – February 3rd, 2009
Tad Elliott races for the Saab-Salomon Factory Team. More information on the Saab-Salomon Factory Team can be found at www.skipost.com I have just arrived home from Praz de Lys, France after the U23 World Championships. I had a tremendous time but I am happy to be home in Durango Colorado. Once arriving in Geneva we had a short drive to the hotel. We arrived around 7:00 p.m. and immediately went to dinner in the hotel...
Praz de Lys, France – The Norweigan women and Russian men closed out the 2009 World Junior Championships with victories in the relay. The women raced a 4×3.3km event with two classic legs and two skate legs. The favorite, Norway, won in convincing fashion, led by Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg, who captured her fourth gold of the Championships as the anchor leg. Sweden, the one team with the depth to compete with Norway, finished second, 30...
Praz de Lys, France – The Russian men swept the podium, taking the top 4 spots in the 10km freestyle individual start at the World Junior Championships. Petr Sedov won his second straight gold, skiing to a convincing 32.6 second victory over teammate Andrey Kalsin. Pavel Vikulin was another 3.1 seconds back in third. Raul Shakirzianov was fourth, 10 seconds back of Vikulin. Sedov, started fast, and was clearly the strongest skier throughout. Vikulin started...
Women’s World Junior 5km Freestyle – Complete Results
Canmore, Alberta, Canada – The American 3 x 6 km Relay in the Youth Women class had moments of triumph and of struggle. Addie Byrne (Bovey, MN) led off for the team, shooting clean with no extra round in prone and only needing two extra rounds in standing she tagged off to Grace Boutot (Fort Kent, ME) in fourth place just two seconds off the third place Italian Team. Boutot skied well, posting the second...
Petr Sedov (RUS) claimed victory in the men’s 20km pursuit yesterday at the World Junior Championships. The 18-year old Sedov, hailing from Moscow, won going away in a time of 52:54.1, a full 48.3 seconds ahead of his teammate Raul Shakirzianov. Third place went to Hans Christer Holund (NOR), the Junior World Champion in the 10 km classic last year. Places 2-4 were decided in a sprint, with Shkirzianov holding off Holund and Tim Tscharnke...
Praz de Lys, France – Invild Flugstad Oestberg (NOR) won her second World Junior gold in two events, taking the victory in the 10km pursuit. Oestberg skied at the front the entire race, breaking away in the skate leg en route to 24.3 second victory over Finland’s Krista Lahteenmaki. Hanna Brodin (SWE) claimed her second podium of the Championships, adding the bronze to a silver in the SUnday’s sprint. Brodin was just over 40 seconds...
Folldal, Norway – The US men’s team skied to an impressive 2nd place finish in the relay at the Scandinavian Junior Championships. The US women’s team also had an excellent day, placing 3rd. The US also placed two skiers in the top 10 in the sprint – Hilary Rich 7th and Tyler Kornfield 9th. For excellent photos and a play by play of the relay, as well as reports from the entire trip, visit the...
Praz de Lys, France – The U23 Championships came to a close with a classic sprint, also the first event of the World Junior Championships. U23 Men The Canadian men’s U23 team capped an excellent week by placing four skiers in the top 10, led by Alex Harvey in 5th. Harvey, gunning for a podium result, and possibly a victory, was foiled in achieving those goals, but still impressed with two top-5 results. Teammate Len...
Canmore, Alberta, Canada, January 31. Addie Byrne (Bovey, MN) placed sixth in the Youth Women 6K Sprint at the Youth/Junior World Championships this afternoon. Byrne had one penalty on a very windy day that saw most competitors have two to five penalties. She finished 29.8 seconds behind co-Champions Olga Galich of Russia and Yan Zhang of China. The duo recorded the same time of 19:31.4. Galich had one penalty to Zhang’s clean shooting. Byrne was...
Praz de Lys, France – Liz Stephen and Morgan Arritola continued to impress at the U23 Championships, finishing 4th and 5th respectively. Sylwia Jaskowiec (POL) won the 15km pursuit event pulling away from Astrid Oeyre Slind (NOR) in the last 100 meters. “The course is fantastic, the weather is good and we had a big support from the spectators, that was great” said Jaskowiec. “Today was my day. I feel good, in good shape with...
Praz de Lys Sommand, Fra.—Canada’s Alex Harvey completed a stellar month by finishing fourth in a men’s 30-kilometre pursuit cross-country skiing race at the Under-23 World Championships in Praz de Lys Sommand, France on Saturday. Reminiscent of his glorious day just two weeks ago where he captured a bronze medal at the World Cup in Whistler, B.C. with teammate, George Grey, Harvey blasted down the finishing stretch past a Russian skier while staring down his...
Canmore, Alberta, Canada – Grace Boutot (Fort Kent, ME) won the Silver medal in the Youth Women 10K Individual competition today. Boutot finished 1:03.9 behind Yan Zhang of China. Both Boutot and Zhang had one penalty. Third went to local favorite Yolaine Oddou of Canada, 1:35.9 back. Oddou had one penalty in each of the first two stages, but cleaned the final two stages. The 17-year-old Zhang carried a substantial lead of two minutes throughout...
Praz de Lys Sommand, France – Liz Stephen (USA)and Morgan Arritola (USA) finished 7th and 8th respectively in the 10km freestyle in the first U23 Championship race. The race was won by Sylwia Jaskowiec (POL). Jaskowiec, a veteran of 20 World Cup races with a career best finish of 23rd, outdistanced the field by 42 seconds. Betty-Ann Nilsen (NOR) was second, edging Spain’s Laura Orgue by 1.5 seconds. Stephen completed the 10km course in a...
This winter has been a tough one for young elite cross-country racers across the U.S. Two of three USSA Super Tour events held in November and December in the Lower 48 were canceled due to a lack of snow. Those races, combined with results from the abbreviated U.S. Nationals, were used in selecting the athletes for several international U.S. teams. A less than ideal qualifying season has nevertheless produced a team for this week’s Under-23...