Canmore (AB), Canada – Alaska’s Kikkan Randall held on for sixth in a FIS World Cup 10k classic mass start at Canmore Thursday, battling head-to-head in the pack behind a dominating win by Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk.

“It was a good hard effort and that was my number one goal for today. I definitely had to dig deep there at the end and I didn’t play my cards right in the finish but overall I’m happy with the race,” Randall said.

Randall battled start to finish in a huge chase pack that was unable to catch Kowalczyk, who took a 14-second win over Finland’s Anne Kylloenen.

“We knew Kowalczyk was going to set a hard pace at the beginning and then the Norwegians kind of went with her. I just tried to make sure to start the race at my own pace knowing that things would come back together in the middle hopefully,” added Randall. “I’m really glad I did that because I even felt a little flooded on the first lap but then felt a lot better on the second and third laps.”

It was a career best classic distance finish for Randall, who is now third in the FIS Cross Country World Cup overall standings and fifth in distance.

Kris Freeman, of Andover, N.H., was 14th in the men’s 15k won by German Tom Tscharnke. Aspen, Colo.’s Noah Hoffman had a solid 22nd, skiing with the leaders the first two laps.

“I had a little bit of a rough start with the first half kilometer or so and kind of ended up kind of a ways back,” Hoffman confessed, “but I was able to move up pretty well and then I found myself up near the front but holding that position  cost me big time. I’m a little disappointed with the end result because I just blew to pieces in the third lap.”

World Cup cross-country ski action in Canmore resumes with sprints on Saturday.