The tricky, rolling sprint courses at Otepää were just the thing the American men's sprinters needed. Kikkan Randall failed to qualify for the women's heats, and the final came down to the usual suspect. Virpi Kuitunen won over unknown Norwegian Astrid Jacobsen and Russian Evgenia Shapovalova. Collecting another 100 points toward the World Cup overall and sprint titles, Kuitunen is now well clear of her nearest competitors in both rankings. She has almost won the titles mathematically: there aren't many more sprints for competitors to catch up.
In the men's heats, the USA had a great day. Three Americans broke through into the top fifteen - not the same three as I predicted, but three nonetheless. More important, both Andy Newell and Torin Koos qualified for the "big final," pitting six racers against one another for the three podium spots. (Chris Cook, a native of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, qualified into the quarterfinals and finisehd 14th on the day.) The final heat was a physical affair, with plenty of bumping and shoving over the entire 1200 meters. After two racers crashed, both Americans were among the four racers vying for the podium. First and second went to two savvy veterans: Norwegian Jens Arne Svartedal, a classical-technique specialist, and Russian Vassili Rotchev, respectively. Koos took third, half a second down to Svartedal and just 2/10ths ahead of Newell.
The bronze was Koos' first-ever World Cup podium; Newell's fourth place garnered enough points to push him up to sixth place in the World Cup sprint rankings, the first time in more than 20 years that an American has been ranked so high so late in the season. He's less than 100 points down to the sprint-ranking leader, Svartedal. Koos and Newell's strong results suggest that they will do well at Sapporo in both the individual sprints on February 23 and in the team sprint on the 22nd. First, though, there are races in Davos, Switzerland, and then Changchun, China, where the 6th Asian Winter Games opened today.