Thank goodness I like obscure European sports and not (so much) NCAA-sanctioned pro-ish sports like college basketball, or my liveblogging would really suffer. The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) reports that
With March Madness just around the corner the NCAA has decided to clamp down on prolific blogging. Last month the group issued a new policy limiting the number of blog posts during 23 different championship college events. Here’s a sampling of the restrictions: Baseball and softball, one each inning; lacrosse, three per quarter, one at halftime; football, three per quarter, one at halftime; basketball, five times per half, one at halftime, two times per overtime period. The policy also says that bloggers must link to ncaasports.com. The new rules are being roundly criticized in the blogosphere. CNET’s Ina Fried said they remind her of the “music industry trying to hold on desperately to old business models in a fundamentally new era.” David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch said the rules “are begging to be made fun of.” Ars Technica seems ambivalent, calling the rules both silly and reasonable.
With March Madness just around the corner the NCAA has decided to clamp down on prolific blogging. Last month the group issued a new policy limiting the number of blog posts during 23 different championship college events. Here’s a sampling of the restrictions: Baseball and softball, one each inning; lacrosse, three per quarter, one at halftime; football, three per quarter, one at halftime; basketball, five times per half, one at halftime, two times per overtime period. The policy also says that bloggers must link to ncaasports.com. The new rules are being roundly criticized in the blogosphere. CNET’s Ina Fried said they remind her of the “music industry trying to hold on desperately to old business models in a fundamentally new era.” David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch said the rules “are begging to be made fun of.” Ars Technica seems ambivalent, calling the rules both silly and reasonable.
Forthwith, then, here's delayed liveblogging of today's sprint races in Asiago, Italy, in the beautiful Val di Fiemme.
Today’s sprint events in Asiago, Italy, open the last phase of the Tour de Ski; they’re the only short-distance event in the last three days of racing, which carry through long mass-start classical races on Saturday (10km for women, 20km for men) and then, on Sunday, the grueling “Final Climb” event which takes skiers most of the way up the Alpe Cermis, a steep mountainside usually used for downhill skiing. Today’s freestyle sprints are the last chance for sprint specialists to place well, and what’s more, the last big chance for those lower down the general classification to move up, thanks to the big time bonuses on offer (60 seconds for winning, 56 seconds for second place, 52 for third, and so on down to one second for thirtieth place). The sprints in Prague temporarily shook up the men’s G.C., but things reverted to form after the next day’s distance races. Today, Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic – not a good sprinter – and Virpi Kuitunen of Finland – an excellent sprinter – are leading the men’s and women’s standings, respectively. While Bauer's big lead can't be eaten up with even the largest time bonuses, Kuitunen has just a 25 second advantage over Charlotte Kalla (Sweden); a high placing, much less a win, by Kalla would close or even eliminate that gap.
women’s sprints
Arianna Follis of Italy – who lurks near the top of the G.C. – set the fastest time in the qualification round. She then won quarterfinal 1. In QF 2, Norway’s Marit Bjorgen failed to advance, finishing fifth and losing any chance to use the sprint time bonuses to move back up the standings. On the other hand, Virpi Kuitunen (who qualified second today) won her heat, just ahead of rival Charlotte Kalla. In the semifinal 1, Follis finished second to Justyna Kowalczyk by 1/10th of a second but still qualified for the large final, as did sprint world champion Astrid Jacobsen. In semifinal 2, Russian Natalia Korosteleva won ahead of Kalla and Russian Olga Rotcheva, who all thus advanced to the final. Virpi Kuitunen finished well back in fifth, relegating her to the small (or consolation) final, where she would now lose seconds to Kalla, Follis, and Kowalczyk, who guaranteed bonus time for themselves by making it to the final. In that small final, Kuitunen wound up fifth again, clearly not able to push hadrd today; Finn Pirjo Muranen won to take an overall seventh place.
In the large final (summary / video), Kalla capitalizes in dramatic fashion, using a huge burst to the line to win handily, more than a half-second up on Korosteleva and over a second up on Kowalczyk and Follis, who go 3-4 in a photo finish. Kalla thus takes advantage of Kuitunen’s inability to race well today, and – with the bonus time – now trails Kuitunen by just two-tenths of a second as they face the last two days of racing. Two-tenths! Kalla could take over the lead on the course tomorrow by capturing one of the time bonuses at the end of each of the three laps in the 10km mass-start. Unfortunately, classical-technique races are Kuitunen's forte, so it's likely that Virpi will gun for the bonuses - or send her Finnish teammates up the trails to take them and prevent Kalla from earning free time. Either way, only a collapse by either Kalla or Kuitunen will dampen the suspense over the "final climb" in stage 8. That stage will be run freestyle, Kalla's prefrerred technique and one with which Kuitunen seems to be struggling. On the other hand, Kuitunen did win the overall TdS title last year with a commanding run up the Alpe...
men’s sprints
Norwegian Tord Asle Gjerdalen - who likes to race in big ol' aviator-style sunglasses, not wraparounds like everybody else - qualified first today, and then won his quarterfinal, a race pitting three Norwegians – all of whom advanced – against three Germans. In QF 2 , Italian Cristian Zorzi, a.k.a “Zorro,” won to move on, along with countryman and distance racer Pietro Piller Cottrer. The very fast QF 3 saw Tor Arne Hetland qualify with a win. In Heat 4, another Italian, Giorgio di Centa, qualified, just behind Martin Koukal of the Czech Republic. In the last QF heat, current sprint-standings leader Nikolay Morilov won, qualifying ahead of the young Norwegian Petter Northug, who has had a poor tour so far. Northug then went on to win the semifinal two in a photo finish with with Tor Arne Hetland; both moved on to the large final. Afterwards, di Centa confronted Northug about some tricky tactics during the race and the two got into a shoving match, as this video shows. Not to be outdone, the other semifinal featured a three-way photo finish, which Gjerdalen won just ahead of Piller Cottrer and Zorzi; all three moved on to the final. Martin Koukal took the small final and seventh overall, taking some valuable bonus points.
The large final (summary / video) was a close-fought affair. Though Northug led most of the race, five of the six racers were still in the mix going into the finishing straight, with Zorzi seemingly ready with a great burst. Charging hard on the innermost lane, Northug upped his tempo to eke out a win 2/10ths ahead of Nikolay Chebotko of Kazakhstan and Hetland. Gjerdalen wound up last in the final, behind the Italians Zorzi and Piller Cottrer.
With the good placings in the sprint, everyone in the final narrowed their gaps to overall leader Lukas Bauer. Gjerdalen is second on general classification, 1:17 down; Piller Cottrer stands third at 1:45; Hetland is in fourth at an even 2:00, and Northug is in fifth, 2:03 back. None of these four trailers is a consummate classical-technique racer like Bauer, so it's unlikely that any of them could use the mass-start race's time bonuses to draw much closer. On the other hand, the final climb is so horrific that a motivated racer could take back 90 seconds or more - and Hetland, Northug, and PIller Cottrer (racing in front of an Italian crowd) are all freestylers on a par with Bauer.