Norway's Eirik Brandsdal stayed ahead to avoid turmoil and seized the win in Saturday's World Cup freestyle sprint in Lahti, Finland, while American Andy Newell won his quarterfinal and finished fourth in his semifinal for his best result of the season.
Kikkan Randall was the top American in today's World Cup freestyle in Lahti, Finland skating her way to 21st place. Noah Hoffman was the top American man, finishing 24th on the icy course.
At the first World Cup since World Championships, the American men posted two top-30s between the freestyle sprint and 15 k classic in Lahti, Finland. Kris Freeman was 25th in the distance event and Andy Newell placed 27th in the preceding sprint. Neither result was stellar, but it was Freeman's best finish since his top-10 in Canmore.
Typically known as a sprinter, Dasha Gaiazova is knocking on distance racing’s door. The 29-year-old notched her second-best result of the season in a distance event, placing 33rd in Sunday’s 10-kilometer classic individual start at the World Cup in Lahti, Finland.
The disappointment of World Championships now well behind her, Sadie Bjornsen led the American women in the Lahti, Finland, 10 k classic with another personal best: 18th place, six notches better than her previous high water mark. Liz Stephen and Kikkan Randall tied for 28th to put three American women in the top 30.
Sadie Bjornsen notched a career-best ninth-place finish in the Lahti, Finland, freestyle sprint on the same day her teammate, Kikkan Randall, secured the crystal sprint globe for the U.S. "She almost stole the show, in a way," said USST women's coach Matt Whitcomb. Seven American women in all competed on Saturday; Jessie Diggins followed Bjornsen in 25th.
In her 100th career World Cup start in Lahti, Finland, on Saturday, American Kikkan Randall won a photo-finish with Marit Bjørgen in the freestyle sprint and locked down the season-long quest for the crystal sprint globe for the second year in a row. "If you put in the work and stay dedicated then you can be the best in the world. And it’s pretty fun," Randall said afterwards.
The return of Emil Jönsson: I’ve removed a few times from folks who fell and had extremely outlying times. Jönsson sort of owned this one all day, it seems. Only a moderate difference between the semifinals this time (with the outlying times, just for fun): On the women’s side, Bjørgen was able to hold off [...] Related posts:
Emil Jönsson needed this. He had been sick for too long, without a top 10 result since December and mostly out of contention for a World Cup podium since the end of last season. Two weekends ago at the freestyle sprint in Szlarska Poreba, Poland, the Swede was 62nd. That was behind him. This was Lahti, Finland, where he won the classic sprint last year. With some of the trickiest descents on the World Cup,...
Whatever condition they were in a week ago, most of the members of the U.S. Ski Team would rather forget it. The ride to Davos, Switzerland, had been rough enough with Kikkan Randall and Andy Newell suffering the worst of a stomach bug that affected the team for most of February. Newell wrote in a Feb. 23 blog post that he and Randall vomited right before leaving Poland for a nine-hour road trip. With two...
Norway’s Therese Johaug notched her fourth individual World Cup win of the season on Saturday in Lahti, Finland, skiing to a comfortable 10.8-second win in the 15 k skiathlon. She won a the 10 k pursuit race there last year. Johaug led a top-four Norwegian sweep; Marit Bjørgen led the chase pack to finish second, Heidi Weng notched her first career individual World Cup podium in third and Kristin Stoermer Steira was, once again, fourth. Just...