It is a wrap. The 2017/2018 World Cup season concluded Sunday in Falun, Sweden with the men’s 15-kilometer freestyle pursuit. The World Cup Finals featured a three-race mini tour with a 15 k class mass start and Sunday’s pursuit. Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov, a spry 21 year old, began the pursuit with a 38-second lead over second starter, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo of Norway. Emboldened with confidence after It has been a revival year for Cologna: he...
FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals (Falun, Sweden): 10/15 k freestyle pursuits Time of day | Final Distance World Cup rankings Men: Pursuit | Final Overall World Cup rankings | Women’s pursuit report | Men’s relay report In her last race of the season, Susan Dunklee returned to the podium. The American started fourth in Sunday’s 10-kilometer pursuit at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Oslo, then made her way into third by the final...
Saturday was the second day of World Cup Finals mini tour, held in Falun, Sweden, which conclude the 2017/2018 season. Holmenkollen 50 k skate. World Cup Finals conclude with 10/15 k freestyle pursuits on Sunday. Falun mini-tour standings|
FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals (Falun, Sweden): 10/15 k classic mass starts Men’s report Day 2 of World Cup Finals in Falun entailed 10- and 15-kilometer classic mass starts on Saturday, and in the first race of the day, Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski pulled out a thrilling finishing-sprint victory over Norway’s Marit Bjørgen. After American Jessie Diggins led early in the first 2.5 k loop, Bjørgen set the tone from the front for most of...
At 21 years old, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo of Norway had already locked up his second-consecutive Sprint World Cup Crystal Globe several weeks ago. A down-to-the-wire, season-ending finale for the sprint globe was out of the question. Klæbo has simply been that good. Out of 11 sprint races this season, Klæbo won the seven out of the nine sprints he contested. He placed second and third, respectively, in the other two. One word to describe it...
FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals (Falun, Sweden): Freestyle sprints Men’s report In the last sprint of the season and the first race of the three-day World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden’s Hanna Falk and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won their respective 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint finals, while Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Klæbo claimed the season-long Sprint Crystal Globes and Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. placed third in the Sprint World Cup. Falk started Friday...
In the classic venue that are the Drammen city sprints, it was a singular affair from start to finish during the men’s World Cup 1.2-kilometer classic sprint on Wednesday. In a race format that tapered from a field of 61 skiers to the winner, one only needs to track the skier in the overall World Cup’s leader bib to follow along. The yellow-bibbed skier, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, didn’t surprise with his sprint win in...
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Drammen, Norway): Classic sprints Men’s report The cross-country World Cup hit the city on Wednesday, with classic sprints contested in the Oslo suburb of Drammen on snow which had been trucked onto the streets. And the crowd was rewarded with wins by two Norwegian favorites: Maiken Caspersen Falla in the women’s sprint and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in the men’s race. In the women’s final, Falla and Natalia Nepryaeva of Russia battled at the lead for...
You could call him a specialist. An all-around contender in classic distance races, Alexey Poltoranin of Kazakhstan has proven time and time again that he has the 15-kilometer classic individual start figured out. On Sunday in Lahti, Finland, he set a new World Cup record by winning his eighth-career 15 k classic (including both individual and mass-start formats). He had previously tied Swedish legend last 15 k classic contested in Planica, Slovenia. Three of Poltoranin’s...
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Lahti, Finland): 10/15 k classic Men’s report Racing at home in Finland, Krista Pärmäkoski picked a good time to collect the second World Cup victory of her career, and again in a 10 k classic. Pärmäkoski’s first win came in the 10 k classic in Planica, Slovenia, earlier this season. In second was Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva, who picked up her first World Cup podium. The current U23 standings leader, Nepryaeva’s time was 20.9...
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, stated his plans to retire after the 2019 World Cup Finals in Québec City. “I was just so motivated to be around to see the first Olympic medal for men get hung around a [Canadian] neck. That’s what drove me every day,” Kershaw reflected. Coming into the 2018 Winter Games, Harvey, 29, was the favorite for a country that has yet to claim an Olympic medal...
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, reigning 15 k classic world champion, Niskanen said that he has embraced a selective peaking strategy. For the last two years he has focused on two championship classic races: the 15 k in Lahti, and Saturday’s 50 k. “Two years after Sochi, I trained so hard and tried to do too many things and have too much races and I got easily sick,” Niskanen said....
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, International report who had publicly questioned the validity of the Russians’ performance in Sochi soon after the 50 k skate concluded, exclaimed of Larkov, “I’m not sure where he got the power to run up that hill like that.” A few seconds later, Harvey outlunged Sundby for fourth, +2:43.6 to +2:43.7. Holund was sixth (+2:50.1), Daniel Rickardsson of Sweden another minute back in seventh (+3:50.4), Czech Martin Jaks eighth (+4:10.5),...
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Americans Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins capture the first Olympic gold for the U.S. in cross-country skiing. It was motivating and inspiring, even confidence-boosting, Bjornsen reflected after his race in an in-person interview with FasterSkier. But he and Hamilton had their own medal hopes to tend to. Like most of the men’s finalists, they weren’t able to watch the women’s race beforehand and came out onto...
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Women’s report Women |
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Norway’s lineup of Didrik Tønseth, Martin Johnsrud Sundby, Simen Hegstad Krüger, and Klæbo in a time of 1:33:04.9. The ninth place ties the country’s second-best Olympic relay result, which was set at the Calgary Games in 1988. Canada’s best relay finish was in 2010 when the team placed seventh with Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey, Ivan Babikov, and George Grey. Harvey opted not to race Sunday’s relay,...
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, women’s Olympic 4 x 5 k relay on Saturday when Norwegian Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen fell adrift of the front skiers. Both were haunting Sochi déjà-vu moments. Passing his 6.6 k checkpoint Sundby looked spent. He uncharacteristically let France and Italy take over the pacing. By then, Bolshunov had gapped the chasing trio by a full 41 seconds. In the post-race press conference, Bolshunov explained he had been hospitalized in the...
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, International report Full report Martin Fourcade is the champion once again. Six days after he won the 12.5-kilometer pursuit for his first gold in PyeongChang, the 29-year-old Frenchman did it again in the men’s 15 k mass start on Sunday, winning in a photo finish at the line. He took charge on the first loop, leading the field into the range for the first prone shooting. There, Fourcade shot...
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Women’s international report | Men’s international report | Post-qualifier notes & quotes After winning the sprint qualifier by 0.39 seconds over defending gold medalist Maiken Caspersen Falla and then besting the Norwegian by 0.03 seconds in her semifinal, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson captured Olympic gold in a dominating performance in the classic sprint final, ultimately besting Falla by 3.03 seconds. Falla had to fight to even keep silver, as Olympic Athlete of Russia Yulia Belorukova pushed the pace...
Earlier this week it was announced that cross-country skier Sergey Ustiugov and biathlete Anton Shipulin were among the Russian athletes excluded from the 2018 Olympic Games coming up in PyeongChang, South Korea, next month. The question arose: just who would be representing Russia? The list of the 169 athletes on the “Olympic Athletes of Russia” team (which is not supposed to be confused with the Russian Olympic Team, which has been banned) has now been...