Blowing & Drifting

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, this evening I can actually watch the video of this afternoon's 1.1km freestyle sprint event in Canmore, Alberta - the last event of the Canmore World Cup week. Today's course is less hellacious than Wednesday's classic sprint course, but it still does have a hard hairpin toward the end and the same "false flat" uphill to the finish line, as well as two sharp up-and-downs in the first half of the course - early enough that they won't be decisive, but hard enough that they will really hurt the skiers. The qualifications went well for the North Americans, with Kikkan Randall, Andy Newell, Torin Koos, and Minneapolis native Garrott Kuzzy making it into the rounds for the U.S. along with several Canadians, including Sara Renner and Olympic champion Chandra Crawford.  Crawford and Newell qualified second, showing that they're in good form today. Without a podium spot so far this week, the American and Canadian teams are going to be going great guns to race well today, and my picks are accordingly homer-ish:

1. Arianna Follis (ITA)

2. Justyna Kowalczyk (POL)

3. Kikkan Randall (USA)

1. Tor Arne Hetland (NOR)

2. Andy Newell (USA)

3. Bjoern Lind (SWE)

quarterfinals In heat 1, Finns Virpi Kuitunen and Pirjo Muranen lead from the start, effectively blocking everyone else all the way to the line and moving forward to the semifinals. Trying to make up for a poor start, Justyna Kowalczyk pushed too hard, crashing into another racer, knocking herself out of the day's racing, and ending her streak of consecutive streaks at three - not a bad trip to Canada! Arianna Follis and Natalia Matveeva easily advanced in a much less crashy heat 2. In heat 3, Kikkan Randall faced a very strong field in her attempt to win a second consecutive freestyle sprint event. She started well, hitting the first corner and hill well and then leading the other five racers up the second hill and around the hairpin. Behind her, some poor cornering by the others only gave Randall a bigger gap to the straightaway, and she zoomed over the line in first, ahead of German Stefanie Boehler. In heat 4, Canadian hope Crawford vied with world sprint champion Astrid Jacobsen (NOR); Crawford's dad was one of the cameramen at the finish line. Crawford took the lead right away, trying to duplicate her friend Randall's tactic of leading all the way. But the lead changed several times as they approached the hairpin, where Crawford intelligently went wide and then jumped from fourth to first with a great descent and fast skis. Pulling up slightly at the finish, she let Jacobsen take first, but still qualified for the semis. In the last heat, Sara Renner jumped out to an early lead, gave it up, and then following Petra Majdic - the winner of Wednesday's classic sprint - down the hill. On the straightaway, Renner pushed hard to get back into the lead but instead faded just enough to let Italian Magda Genuin nip her for second.

semifinals The first heat in the semis featured three Finns, including the fastest qualifier, Kuitunen, as well as Arianna Follis. Steffi Boehler wiped out on the opening straightaway, reducing the field and making it even easier for the trio of Finns to dominate the race. Again, though, the hairpin was key, reshuffling the line such that only Pirjo Muranen could hold her position. She finished first, going through to the large final along with Arianna Follis. The speed of the heat allowed both Natalia Matveeva and Virpi Kuitunen to earn "lucky loser" spots in the final. The other semi included both Kikkan Randall and Chandra Crawford, but the two North Americans had to vie against Petra Majdic and Astrid Jacobsen. A quick start put Crawford into the lead, but she ceded that spot on the back of the course, letting Italian Magda Genuin go to the front and then popping out to freeskate to the win. Randall could only muster fourth, behind Majdic.

finals In the small final, Kikkan Randall used the first hill to move into the lead, then let Petra Majdic go forward on the second hill so as to catch a little draft from the big Slovenian. Randall let her get away on the finishing stretch, but held on to second to finish eighth on the day. The large final was the day's big event for the Canmore fans, for it included hometown girl Chandra Crawford. She had to face two Finns (Kuitunen and Muranen), two Italians (Genuin and Folis), and Russian Matveeva. Crawford overcame a first-step stumble to go first into the initial corner. Muranen went around on the first hill, but Crawford drafted well and picked a good line through that dangerous hairpin. Gliding better than everyone else, Crawford zoomed into the lead and then blasted away from the field with a huge surge to take the handy win in front of Muranen and Genuin. A great day for Crawford: her first-ever World Cup win in front of her hometown fans.

quarterfinals The first heat saw two Canadians, Drew Goldsack and Devon Kershaw, faced the number-one qualifier, Emil Joenssen. On the straightaway to the finish, Goldsack jumped around the second-placed racer to close on Joenssen and take second. Heat 2 included American Torin Koos. An early crash put a dangerous Norwegian at the back of the field, and Koos smartly stayed clear to join the rush to the line. He couldn't quite keep up with Josef Wenzl (GER) and Christoph Eigenmann (SUI), though, and finished third - but then went through as one of the "lucky losers" with the fastest racers who didn't finish 1 or 2. The next heat was perhaps the day's strongest, featuring Olympic champions Bjoern Lind (SWE), Cristian Zorzi (ITA), and Tor Arne Hetland (NOR). Lind took the holeshot through the first corner and maintained a lead over the back of the course. Swinging around the hairpin, Canadian Phil Widmer tried to get back on terms, but Ivan Ivanov (RUS) surged around Lind for the win. Heat 4 pitted two Americans against each other: sprint ace Andy Newell and rising all-rounder Garrott Kuzzy. The field went four abreast up the two hills, but on sorted out on the descent. Newell was bounced outside on the hairpin and blocked on the straightaway, relegating him to fifth. But Garrott Kuzzy recovered from a poor start to take third, a great showing. In the last quarterfinal, three Norwegians tried to make up for an overall poor day by the country's racers. Instead, two Russians - Michail Devjatiarov and Nikolay Morilov led over the back of the course. A concerted push by the Norwegians at the hairpin failed (and led to a big crash), and the Russians advanced.

semifinals Torin Koos had a remach with Wenzl and Eigenmann in the first semi, which also included Bjoern Lind. One false start restrained the skiers when the race actually started, and the field remained bunched all the way into the haripin. Sloppy cornering by Bjoern Lind knocked both himself and Eigenmann out of the race, allowing Emil Joenssen and Josef Wenzl to take the two sure-thing spots in the final. Koos avoided that trouble, but couldn't move up into third, which went to Canadian Drew Goldsack. The other semifinal slotted surprising American Garrott Kuzzy in with three Russians and two Finns. One Russian inexplicably fell on the backstretch, setting up a three-way photofinish between Finn Matias Strandvall and Russians Nikolay Morilov and Vassili Rotchev, who all went through to the final. Stuck at the back for almost the whole race, Kuzzy couldn't move up and was relegated to the small final.

finals The small final featured three North Americans, but the favorite was Bjoern Lind. The Swede clearly tried to lead from wire to wire, but some bumping on the backstretch prevented him from accomplishing that goal. Instead, Christoph Eigenmann snuck around the hairpin to lead all the way to the finish line. Michail Devjatiarov came across well back in second, and then the Minnesotan Garrott Kuzzy capped a memorable day by surging to third in the heat, ninth on the day - a fantastic way to end his first experience racing on the World Cup. The large final was another Russian-studded affair, with three blue-clad racers vying against number-one qualifier Joensson, Finn Strandvall, and Josef Wenzl. Joenssen led all the way to the hairpin, which he handled well and used to lengthen a small lead. On the finishing straightaway, he simply accelerated away from everyone else, forcing a big charge for second. A three-way photofinish gave second to Ivan Ivanov, third, to Nikolay Morilov, and fourth to Matias Strandvall.