23-year-old Astrid Jacobsen (NOR) claimed victory on the 4 x 1.9 km course in the interval start freestyle race in Liberec (CZE). At the end of the race, she was only 0.4 seconds ahead of Justyna Kowalcyzk (POL), and 7.0 seconds ahead of Tour de Ski winner Charlotte Kalla (SWE). Kuitunen, the overall World Cup leader, finished 38th; it was the first time this season that she was out of the top 30. Throughout the...
Ostersund, Sweden, February 14. Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) finished 29th in the 20K Individual this evening at the Biathlon World Championships, while Caitlin Compton (Minneapolis, MN) finished 37th in the 15K earlier in the day. The strong cold front that blasted through Ostersund early Wednesday morning forced the organizing committee to reschedule both the Women’s 15K and the Men’s 20K for today. Conditions improved dramatically from yesterday, but the wind continued to blow across...
Ostersund, Sweden, February 12. The US Team of Tracy Barnes (Durango, CO), Laura Spector (Lenox, MA), Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK), and Russell Currier (Stockholm, ME) finished 16th in the World Championships Mixed Relay competition today. The US finished 10:05.3 behind the victorious German team of Sabrina Buchholz, Magdalena Neuner, Andreas Birnbacher, and Michael Greis. The Germans needed only six spare rounds to claim the Gold medal in a time of 1:12:20.5. The US Team had...
Ostersund, Sweden, February 10. Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY), in 15th position coming into the final standing shooting stage, hit all five targets, then flew through the final 2.5K to finish 10th in the 12.5K Pursuit at the Biathlon World Championships today. Burke’s 10th place gave him two top-10 finishes in the first competitions at these Championships. He finished 1:18.6 behind the “King of Biathlon†Ole Einar Björndalen, who won in 31:04.5 and like Burke...
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. 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...
Ostersund, Sweden. Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) finished ninth in the 10K Sprint at the Biathlon World Championships today, the third best result of his career. Burke has only two better results in World Cup level competitions than today: sixth place in the Pokljuka Slovenia World Cup Pursuit last season and seventh place in last year’s World Championships 20K Individual competition. All week the wax technicians have been testing skis here in Ostersund in preparation...
The 28-year-old Majdic claimed victory on the 1.2 km course in Otepää, ahead of Sprint World Cup leader Astrid Jacobsen (NOR). Overall World Cup leader Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) took third. For Majdic, this was her sixth World Cup victory ever, and the third victory of this season — all in classical sprints. Jacobsen stood on the podium for the sixth time this season. The top two were a repeat of the World Cup sprint in...
In the exciting men’s race, Eldar Roenning (NOR) earned his first World Cup victory of the season, edging teammate John Kristian Dahl at the line. Another Norweigan, Ola Vigen Hattestad, took third. Emil Joensson (SWE), the top qualifier, and winner of the freestyle sprint in Canmore was fourth with Peteer Kummel scoring a career best fifth place finish in front of the home crowd. Norway made it four of the top six with Anders Gloerson...
Virpi Kuitunen claimed victory on the 2 x 5km course in Otepää, 9.9 seconds ahead of her teammate, 29-year-old Aino-Kaisa Saarinen. In third was the Norwegian youngster Therese Johaug, 17.6 seconds back. Kuitunen started very strong and had the best time at the first intermediate point at 0.9km. Norweigans Astrid Jacobsen and Johaug took over the lead at the second intermediate point (2.3km), but Kuitunen countered and controlled the race from there on. Jacobsen faded...
Tour-de-Ski champion, and men's overall World Cup leader, Lukas Bauer (CZE), skied to a 14 second victory over Jaak Mae (EST) in the 15km classic individual start event in Estonia. After Mae, there was a large gap to the rest of the field. Third place finisher Ville Nousiainen (FIN) was 1:05 behind Bauer. It was a good day for the host nation, with veteran Andrus Veerpalu finishing fourth to give Estonia two of the top...
Ostersund, Sweden. Caitlin Compton (Minneapolis, MN) is one of the two “rookies†on the US Biathlon Team who will start in the Sprint competitions at the Biathlon World Championships here on Saturday. US Biathlon Coach Mikael Lofgren announced at a team meeting last night that Compton and Haley Johnson (Lake Placid, NY) will get their first—ever starts at the World Cup level in the Women’s 7.5K Sprint. The two athletes on the ten-person team who...
Due to technical difficulties it took us some time to get this video posted. While it is a little dated, there is plaenty of relevant footage to watch – including a wrap-up interviews with USST Head Coach Pete Vordenberg, Swedish great Gunde Svan, Garrott Kuzzy, Kikkan Randall and Torin Koos. There is also race footage from the sprint and 15km freestyle races and excerpts from the press conference with women's freestyle sprint winner and Canmore...
Ostersund, Sweden. The ten-person US Biathlon Team, combining experience and youth, opens competition on Saturday in this city of 60,000, situated on the shore of Lake Storsjön in west central Sweden. US Biathlon Executive Director Max Cobb commented on the diverse nature of this year’s team, “This team represents a great mix of youth and experience; two junior athletes are on the team, while three of the five men have had top ten performances at...
Editor's Note: Mark submitted this report following Madjic's win but unfortunately the email was overlooked. We apologize for the late posting. Mark Waechter is the owner and operator of Nordic UltraTune, a full service stone-grinding shop in Winthrop, WA. He is working ski service with the Slovenian National Team at the World Cup races in Canmore, ALB. He will be posting additional updates at Madjic (2) in the A-Final on her way to victory. Astrid...
SEEFELD, Austria (Jan. 26) – Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY) had the second-fastest 7.5K race Saturday to finish sixth in a nordic combined World Cup sprint. He protected his No. 2 spot in the World Cup overall standings. Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) was 19th. The day had a mix of two competitions. After jumping for the sprint, with weather forecasts predicting nasty weather, athletes took one more jump to be used as part of an...
Emil Joensson of Sweden won the first World Cup race of his career, outsprinting last year’s World Junior Sprint Champion, Ivan Ivanov of Russia. Matias Strandvall (FIN) gained his first World Cup podium in the third spot. Kuzzy talks strategy before the B-Final Andy Newell comes into the first corner during his quarter final heat “Andy went to the right and they moved him out while I went into the first lane and I had...
Chandra Crawford is back! The Olympic Gold Medalist captured her first ever World Cup win on her home course in Canmore. The surprise winner of the Freestyle Sprint at the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Crawford struggled through a difficult season last year, unable to crack the top-20 on the World Cup circuit. That is all a distant memory now as Crawford followed up a strong 12th in the classic sprint with the victory in the...
FasterSkier will be presenting expanded coverage of the freestyle sprints on the final day of the World Cup in Canmore with our World Cup blog. Once again we will do our best to bring live updates during the sprint heats. Check back often and be sure to scroll down the blog page to see if you missed anything. http://blogs.fasterskier.com/worldcup/
In case you missed it on the blog. FasterSkier caught some the best sprinters on video during the classical sprint, be sure to check it out. Race Video – Andy Newell Sprint Qualification and Quarterfinal Watch Video Race Video – Torin Koos Quarterfinal
Valerio Checchi of Italy won his first ever World Cup event, besting Rene Sommerfeldt of Germany by 8.3 seconds. Fellow Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer was third, 13.2 seconds back. The winner – Valerio Checchi (ITA) Kris Freeman gained World Cup points with a 29th place finish. Freeman was 14th after 5km and 24th after 10km. He finished 1:28 out of the win. “Kris started conservatively and was 14th after the first lap but midway through...