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It was -6 deg. C. and cloudy as the racers began sprint qualifying in Estonia today. Canada had 3 women and 3 men entered as Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw returned to the World Cup to join the "sprinters".
Dasha Gaiazova was the top Canadian qualifier on the women's side, showing why it is her most favourite event, with a 13th place result behind Marit Bjoergen of Norway who set the standard. Chandra Crawford and Perianne Jones were racing again after their World Cup team sprint medal in Italy, and Chandra finished 23rd, while Perianne missed qualifying by placing 39th.
Women's qualifying results
On the men's side Alex Harvey was the top qualifier in 5th, as Dario Cologna showed no signs of fatique from his Tour de Ski win, with the top qualifying time, over 4 seconds faster than 2nd place skier Gleb Retivykh.
Len Valjas was 15th in qualifying and Devon Kershaw broke a pole ending up 40th and missing the quarter finals.
Devon Kershaw: "Qualifier today in Estonia for me? Broken pole/broken dreams" It will be interesting to see how Devon bounces back for tomorrow, in what can be considered his best race, a 15k classic.
Qualifying saw a number of skiers double poling the whole course which seemed to be the main choice for the men.
Dasha got off to a good start in her quarterfinals as Sweden's Ingemarsdotter led out and Dasha stayed close behind. Dasha skied near the top of the group until 2/3rds of the way through the course and took the lead for a bit with seemingly faster skis. When they came to the last uphill Dasha dropped back a bit to 3rd and was fighting for 3rd on the last straight, before being beaten at the wire by Lahteenmaki of Finland.
Dasha: "In the CL sprint today my body felt awesome, the skis were so fast, & my race tactic was terrible. Finished a forgettable 17th"
Chandra was in a tough heat that included her friend kikkan Randall of the US and Matveeva of Russia who had qualified 4th.
Visnar of Slovenia took the classic Slovenian approach, take the lead at the start and try to hang on, with Chandra shadowing Randall in the middle of the pack. The packed skied together in a single line for much of the race but Chandra dropped a little back to 5th as they were getting close to the stadium.
It was a fast heat as Matveeva won, with Randall and Visnar 3rd and 4th in the "lucky loser"positions.
Dasha ended up 17th and Chandra 22nd, with Perianne 39th.
Women's results
Alex and Lenny were unfortunately against each other in the quarterfinal, with Alex skiing a very strong heat to win comfortably over Lassila of Finland. Len ended up in 4th.
Alex skied the 2nd semifinal against 3 Russians, including the 2010 Olympic sprint champ Kriukov and silver medallist Panzhinskiy. The 3 Russians led out together with Panzhinskiy seeming to opt for grip wax while the rest of the field were double poling the relatively flat course. Alex stayed comfortably in the second tier of skiers.
The group skied together until the last downhill section, near to the stadium when Panzhinskiy tried to move inside a bit on the downhill corner, and as a result got tangled up with his team mate Retivykh. This caused them to both go down. Andy Newell of the US narrowly avoided going down as well, but was significantly impeded as the leaders took advantage and surged ahead.
Alex showed excellent double poling strength through the stadium, holding off Norwegian sprint star Oeystein Pettersen, to capture the semifnal victory. Nikita Kriukov coming 3rd in a "lucky loser"position.
In the final Alex was against 3 Norwegians, super Dario the Tour de Ski champ and Kriukov. From the start Alex tucked in with Cologna, and maintained a place in the middle of the pack through the first part of the course, keeping contact with the lead.
As they neared the stadium Cologna took the lead with Hattestad chasing and Alex was in 4th working hard to stay in touch with the top 3. Into the last corner as they entered the stadium Alex made a surge up to challenge Hattestad for second and they were neck and neck behind Cologna on the finishing straight.
Unfortunately in the last 100 metres, Hattestad managed to pull ahead and the Norwegian Erik Brandsdal managed to edge Alex for 3rd at the finish.
While just missing the podium was disapointing for Alex, this was by far his best classic World Cup sprint result and 2nd best behind his silver medal in the skate sprint in Drammen, Norway last year.
Lenny Valjas ended up 21st and Devon was 40th.
Results
Today's result moves Alex up to 7th on the overall World Cup, just behind Devon who is 6th behind Dario Cologna.
W Cup standings
Next up are short distance classic races tomorrow.
Updates from the Haywood NorAm series Teck sprint from Canmore to come later in the day.
A full press release and updates will follow with athlete and coach comments
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Un communiqué de presse suivra sous peu dans les deux langues officielles, incluant les commentaires des athlètes et entraîneurs.