17-year-old American Katharine Ogden finished an impressive 11th in her first-ever race in the Junior World Championships, while Katherine Stewart-Jones led the Canadian women and took 25th. In the men's race, Canada's Alexis Dumas placed 30th and was the top North American in a race dominated by the Russian team.
Last year in his Junior World Championships debut, Thomas O’Harra placed 54th in the freestyle sprint. The 18-year-old APU skier placed 14th on Tuesday in the opening race of 2015 Junior Worlds in Almaty, Kazakhstan -- the 1.3-kilometer classic sprint -- and three Canadian women made the quarterfinals as well.
Barbro Kvåle, a 22-year-old Norwegian junior world champion in ski orienteering, joined the ranks of Therese Johaug and Marit Bjørgen on Sunday, winning the women’s 1.2-kilometer classic sprint by three-tenths of a second in Beitostølen, Norway.
When it comes to opening distance races, Therese Johaug is a gamer. On Friday, she won the first 10 k classic of the season for the fourth year in a row and third-straight Beitostølen distance opener -- once again ahead of Norwegian teammate Marit Bjørgen.
Led by two-time individual champion Dmitry Rostovtsev, Russia racked up another victory in the men's relay on Sunday, the last day of Junior Worlds. In the women's relay, Sweden's Stina Nilsson used her sprinting ability to charge late and oust Russia's Nadezhda Shuniaeva .
Germany's Victoria Carl notched her second straight medal at Junior World Championships on Wednesday, winning gold in the 5 k skate event. Dmitry Rostovtsev of Russia won the men's 10 k ahead of teammate Artem Maltsev.
The 2013 World Junior Championships got underway on Monday in Liberec, Czech Republic. Sweden's Stina Nilsson won the first gold medal of the week by 1.9 seconds over German's Victoria Carl. In the men's sprint, Lennart Metz (GER) took the men's title over Vadim Korolev (RUS).