Blowing & Drifting

Forecast: Significant blowing and drifting, with the possibility of heavy accumulation in rural areas.

Sapporo World Championships - Day 4

As expected, the women's pursuit at the Nordic Ski World Championships in Sapporo did not see a huge pack hang together until the final kilometers, though neither did it see the long successful escape that I hoped for. Rather, a half-dozen racers broke away early in the second leg of the race, run in the freestyle or skating technique, and created their own race-within-a-race for the medals (video). Kristin Størmer Steira (Norway) led for most of the last phase of the race, trying to use her climbing prowess to lose her pursuers, especially the Russian veteran Olga Savialova, who cannily drafted Steira for almost the entire second half of the race. Behind them and some fading frontrunners, Czech Katerina Neumannova steadily erased a five-second deficit. With 2500 meters to go, the Czech skier made contact with Steira and Savialova and the hanging-on German Evi Sachenbacher Stehle. Savialova immediately surged to the lead. Sachenbacher Stehle tried to follow, but the effort was too much, and she soon fell back to fourth, barely hanging on to the front trio and obviously tired. At the last time check, on a steep curving hill, Savialova was visibly stronger than her chasers, but could not escape on the subsequent descent. Steira tried to attack on the next small uphill, but Neumannova responded and stuck to Savialova when the Russian accelerated around the final corner and into the finishing straightaway. Neumannova tried to swing wide, replicating Axel Teichmann's successful gambit the day before. With power to spare, Savialova easily matched Neumannova's pace, maintaining her lead all the way to the line and taking the gold by a half-second. Steira was 2.1 seconds back in bronze, Sachenbacher Stehle a distant fourth. Neumannova is clearly on form to race well - and I think to win - in the 10km freestyle race on Tuesday. But Savialova will be a force in that race, too, having earned at Sapporo a championship to match the gold she won at the 2003 World Championships.

Beyond Savialova's return to form, the story of the day was Virpi Kuitunen's shocking withdrawal from the race. My pick for the silver medal, Kuitunen's DNF demonstrated that her bad back may plague her at these world championships and into the last phase of the World Cup season. A favorite for podium spots, if not gold medals, in all three remaining events, Kuitunen may now not be able to go at full power.