The team of Evi Sachenbacher Stehle and Claudia Kuenzel outpaced the rest of the world today in the second-to-last World Cup race of the year, a 6x1km freestyle team sprint held in Sapporo, Japan. Claudia Kuenzel. Photo copyright Marco Felgenhauer, xc-ski.de The German duo finished an impressive 14.4 seconds clear of second-placed Finland (Riitta Liisa Lasilla and Pirjo Manninen) who just barely beat out a surprisingly strong effort from Sweden II (Britta Norgren and Anna...
Proving once again that he is skiing as fast as ever, veteran Italian sprinter Christian Zorzi won a photo finish sprint to the line against Norwegian Eldar Roenning to give Italy the Gold in today's 6×1.2km team sprint in Sapporo, Japan. Zorzi and teammate Loris Frasnelli managed to hold off not only Norway's team of Roenning and Tor Arne Hetland, but nearly equally-strong efforts by Germany I (with World Cup overall winner Tobias Angerer and...
FIS World Cup Cross-Country in Sapporo (Japan), Team Sprint F, 18.03.2006 Germany I with Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle and Claudia Kuenzel won the women Team Sprint competition in Sapporo (JPN) clearly 14,4 seconds ahead of Finland II with Riitta Liisa Lassila and Pirjo Manninen. The third place took team Sweden II with 22-year-old Britta Norgren and Anna Karin Stroemstedt, 14,5 seconds behind the winning team. Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle attacked at her last lap on the last uphill and...
Andrew Newell of the US Ski Team did what he had been (non-verbally) threatening to do all winter, and skied faster than all of the World's best sprinters in the prelim of today's final World Cup sprint of the year in Chanchun, China. Despite the long travel distance to China, most if not all of the top World Cup sprinters were there racing the 1.0km freestyle. Qualification Results: Andrew Newell in the Olympics http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=CC&raceid=9628 This...
After giving up half of her points lead when she dropped out of the Holmenkollen last weekend, Norway's Marit Bjoergen put up a fight with overall World Cup contender Beckie Scott of Canada, winning the final individual sprint of the year today in Changchun, China. Scott, who has been coming on stronger and stronger ever since the Olympics, raced superbly against three Norwegians in the A-final to finish second in the 1.0km freestyle. But it...
Editor's Note: The quotes below were sent to us by FIS. Usually FIS provides quotes from the top three athletes. So it's disappointing that they did not get a quote from Andrew Newell, but got one from the fourth place finisher instead. FIS World Cup Cross-Country in Changchun (China), Sprint Classic, 15.03.2006 Bjoergen and Fredriksson won the Sprint race in Changchun Marit Bjoergen (NOR) and Thobias Fredriksson (Sweden), are the winners of the World Cup...
CHANGCHUN, China (March 15) – Olympian Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) finished third – the first U.S. cross country World Cup podium since 1983 when two other Vermonters were top-3 in a cross country race – as the World Cup made its debut Wednesday night in a 1K freestyle sprint in this Manchurian city of nearly seven million northeast of Beijing. Newell led the qualifying and moved through quarterfinals and semis before finishing third behind Swede...
First this season the World Cup went to Canada for the first time in ten years, now the FIS World Cup Cross Country is also going to Asia. The final World Cup competitions will take place in Asia, in Changchun (CHN) and Sapporo (JPN). Tobias Angerer from Germany has confirmed his overall World Cup victory on the men’s side but who will be the overall World Cup winner on the women’s side? That will be...
www.fis-ski.com The World Cup concludes with races in China and Japan next week: March 15: Changchun, China: Freestyle sprint March 18: Sapporo, Japan: 2 person sprint relay March 19: Sapporo, Japan: Pursuit (2 x 7.5-k women and 2 x 15-k for men) Beckie Scott after Saturday’s 30-k World Cup race in Oslo, Norway: “I am very happy with my 4th place here today since 30km skating races are usually not my strongest event and I...
The 29-year-old Julija Tchepalova won the individual World Cup race over 30 km in free technique in a time of 1:18:44.1. The athlete from Russia finished 17,2 seconds clearly ahead of the Czech Katerina Neumannova. Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle from Germany took the third place 1:12.9 minute behind the winner. Neumannova started very fast on the course that consisted of two laps (12,5 km and 16,7 km) but could not keep her pace and lost her lead...
The giant Slovenian Petra Majdic made good use of her long legs on the final uphill stretch to win today's classic sprint in Drammen, Norway in front of tens of thousands of loud Norwegian fans. Canadian Beckie Scott, coming off of a third place in yesterday's pursuit race in Sweden and 10th in the freestyle sprint the day before, was able to win both of her heats leading up to the final where she faced...
It was an all-Norwegian men's final in today's classic sprint held in downtown Drammen, Norway where the course was surrounded by tens of thousands of loudly cheering Norwegian fans. Boerre Naess led the prelim with a smoking time of 2:41.85, which turned out to be by far the fastest of the day including times from all of the heats. An unbelievable 10 out of the top 12 qualifiers were Norwegians. Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset. Photo by Stian...
The following article came from Kikkan Randall's 'Race Tails' email. Find out more at
BORLAENGE, Sweden (March 7) – Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK), who produced the alltime best U.S. women’s Olympic finish when she was ninth in the sprint two weeks ago in Italy, turned-in the best alltime U.S. women’s World Cup result Tuesday night, finishing fifth in a 750-meter sprint on a horse race track. Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) was 13th in the men’s 1.5K event as Swede Thobias Fredriksson won. Italy’s Arianna Follis won the women’s freestyle...
By: Doug McIntyre/CCC Borlaenge, SWE — The boys are back in town. For the first time in more than 15 years, the Canadian Cross-Country Ski Team had a male competitor reach the podium in World Cup action to cap off a heady day of double medal results and four top-10 finishes on Tuesday. In a case of rookie fire and veteran savvy, respectively, Devon Kershaw and Sara Renner both turned in bronze-medal performances in the...
This morning in Falun, Sweden saw a return to action for many of the best middle-distance skiers in the world, many of whom skipped the super-long Vasaloppet right after the Olympics as well as yesterday's freestyle sprint in Borlange, in preparation for today's event: a 5km+5km continous pursuit. The only North Americans on the starting line were Sara Renner and Beckie Scott of Canada, who unlike some competitors, raced both the Vasa and yesterday's sprint....
Imagine you are in the best shape of your life, skiing in a World Cup and finding yourself able to hang with the World's best kilometer after kilometer, hill after hill. Then you somehow find the strength and the will to kick it up a notch and start passing Olympic medalists, World Champions, and overall World Cup winners including the guy that won this exact race by a landslide 3 years ago. The overall World...
“VIESSMANN” FIS World Cup Cross-Country in Falun (Sweden), Pursuit, 08.03.2006 Women competition, Pursuit 5km C + 5km F First victory in this season for Sachenbacher Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle from Germany won the foreshortened Pursuit World Cup races over 5 km in classic technique and 5 km in free technique in a time of 29:26.7. The athlete from Germany finished 0,4 seconds ahead of the Czech Katerina Neumannova. Beckie Scott from Canada lost the photo finish sprint...
“VIESSMANN” FIS World Cup Cross-Country in Borlaenge (Sweden), Sprint F women and men, 07.03.2006 Follis and Thobias Fredriksson took the sprint Arianna Follis of Italy won the women's World Cup sprint race in Borlaenge (Sweden). The 28-year-old Italian finished just ahead on the current World Cup leader Marit Bjoergen (Norway). Sara Renner took third for Canada as the home favourite Emelie Oehrstig was the first left out of the podium. For Follis it was her...
Borlange, Sweden–Freestyle Sprint: Canadian Devon Kershaw followed up on a promising 4th-place prelim rank by rocketing through his heats all the way to the A final where he faced three Swedes: perennial Dusseldorf World Cup sprint winner Peter Larsson, 2003 World Sprint Champion Thobias Fredriksson, and recent Olympic Gold Medalist in the sprint and overall World Cup sprint leader Bjoern Lind. Kershaw's semifinal was hardly any easier, with among others two of the most successful...