After qualifying in 10th and 21st, Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell saw their sprint days end in the quarterfinals, where they placed sixth and fifth for the U.S., respectively. Hamilton busted a pole, and Canada missed out on the heats with Len Valjas coming closest to qualifying in 31st.
Andy Newell remembered a thing or two about the Kuusamo course, and he shared them with his U.S. teammates before the World-Cup opening classic sprint there on Friday. His calculations worked, as Newell ended up just over a second off the podium in fourth for his best result in three seasons.
A year after placing third behind fellow Norwegians Eirik Brandsdal and Petter Northug, Sondre Turvoll Fossli, 22, turned the tables on his teammates and won his first World Cup -- the Ruka classic sprint -- on Friday ahead of Brandsdal and Northug, respectively. American Andy Newell had his best World Cup result since February 2013.
Andy Newell narrowly qualified in 28th, but made it into the semifinals and finished 12th overall in the season's final World Cup sprint. Canada's Lenny Valjas just missed out the semifinals and took 14th overall. Sadie Bjornsen was the lone North American woman to qualify and finished 26th overall after racing in the fastest quarterfinal heat.
Simi Hamilton made it to the semifinals in Saturday's World Cup classic sprint in Östersund, Sweden, to end up 11th overall, and Andy Newell took 12th for his best result of the season. Sadie Bjornsen and Sophie Caldwell made it to the quarterfinals as well and ended up 22nd and 20th overall, respectively.
If he hadn’t been a Northug, one might have wondered what that 24-year-old Norwegian was doing in the men's 1.5 k classic-sprint final on Saturday.
There was no shortage of action in the men’s 1.3-kilometer freestyle sprint on Sunday as 24-year-old Federico Pellegrino fought his way to his first-ever World Cup win and Italy’s first victory of the season. “I hope it's a good omen," he said after the race. "I hope it is the first in a long series of triumphs.”
Eirik Brandsdal repeated his Kuusamo feat from last year, winning the classic sprint there for the second-straight year. He led a Norwegian sweep of the men's top four, outlasting Northug in a double-pole showdown to the finish, and 21-year-old Sondre Turvoll Fossli placed third in his first World Cup final.
Sondre Turvoll Fossli, the runner-up of Sunday's 1.5 k classic sprint in Beitostølen, Norway, knew Petter Northug was coming for him sooner or later. Sure enough, Northug on skate skis passed him in the final stretch before the finish for a 0.4-second FIS victory.
For all the international-racing junkies out there, the Swedish and Norwegian Ski Associations recently announced the nominations to their 2014/2015 national teams: a couple new names, a few departures, but both are back again with depth in numbers.
The fourth-fastest qualifier, Andy Newell went on to place sixth in the men's 1.4 k skate sprint in Beitostølen, Norway, on Sunday -- not exactly what he was hoping for, but not bad for his first skate sprint since August. Simi Hamilton qualified in 15th and had an unlucky break that put him 27th overall.
Biathletes and cross-country skiers alike from Europe and beyond descended on Sandnes, Norway, for the annual three-day Blink Ski Festival from Aug. 1-3. The rollerski mass starts, hill climbs and sprints saw some close finishes, new winners and record crowds.
ERZURUM, Turkey — For elite skiers under the age of 20, the FIS Junior World Championships are a focal point of the previous year’s training. No matter the national team, an athlete’s success at World Juniors causes elated finish-line celebrations, as it confirms he can ski as fast, or perhaps faster, than he ever thought possible. The freestyle sprint, the opening events of the 2012 championships at Kindalli Nordic Ski Center, was no exception....