Kuusamo, Finland – World Cup sprint champion Kikkan Randall fought hard to earn a fifth-place finish for the U.S. Ski Team during Sunday’s 10k freestyle pursuit, the finale of the Ruka Triple mini-tour and cross-country World Cup season opening weekend. Randall posted the best result for the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team while Marit Bjoergen from Norway took the victory for the second-straight year.
“I’m super happy to wrap up a successful Ruka Triple today with a fifth place finish. It felt so good to be back on my skate skis!” said Randall, of Anchorage, Alaska. “In classic I feel like I have to focus so hard on my technique and I can’t always use all the power and fitness that I have. But today I felt so comfortable on my skis and was able to use my full capacity. I had a good battle with Jacobsen and Tcheckaleva on the last two laps and had a strong gear in the finish.”
Winthrop, Wash.’s Sadie Bjornsen finished 17th after a breakout weekend with a career-best seventh-place finish in the 5k classic on Saturday and a third-place sprint qualification on Friday. Jessie Diggins, of Afton, Minn., finished 24th after closing a huge gap from her starting position in 46th.
In the men’s 15k pursuit, Aspen, Colo.’s Noah Hoffman posted the fastest race time of the day, emerging with an impressive ninth-place finish after starting 38th. Hoffman finished only 12.2 seconds behind winner Norwegian Martin Johnsrud Sundby after starting a full 62 seconds back.
“I’m happy with the way I skied. I get 50 World Cup points and 5,000 Swiss francs on top of that,” said Hoffman. “It’s not a full World Cup win by any means but I’ll take it. Skiing in ninth in the tour is a big improvement over where I was yesterday so I’m happy with that as well.”
“It’s really cool to see so many strong performances from the team today,” added Randall. “Sadie, Jessie, Liz and Holly all skied really strong in the women’s race and Hoffman skied an incredibly gutsy race to take the fastest time of the day and ninth place. Spirits are high now for the start of the season and we’re really excited for the relays next weekend in Lillehammer. We feel especially proud of the success this weekend because all the other big teams have their big wax buses here and armies of support staff and yet our small team is right in there skiing as well as any of them.”
This weekend the World Cup moves to Lillehammer, Norway Dec. 7-8 for men’s and women’s 15k and 10k classic races as well as 4×7.5k and 4x5k team relays.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup
Kuusamo, Finland – Dec. 1, 2013
Women’s
| Rank | Bib | Name | Year | Nation | Time | FIS Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BJOERGEN Marit | 1980 | NOR | 43:42.1 | 0.00 | |
| 2 | KALLA Charlotte | 1987 | SWE | 43:42.9 | 0.24 | |
| 3 | JOHAUG Therese | 1988 | NOR | 43:43.4 | 0.40 | |
| 4 | KOWALCZYK Justyna | 1983 | POL | 44:13.0 | 9.43 | |
| 5 | RANDALL Kikkan | 1982 | USA | 44:44.0 | 18.89 | |
| 6 | JACOBSEN Astrid Uhrenholdt | 1987 | NOR | 44:44.7 | 19.10 | |
| 7 | TCHEKALEVA Yulia | 1984 | RUS | 44:46.0 | 19.50 | |
| 8 | HERRMANN Denise | 1988 | GER | 45:20.1 | 29.90 | |
| 9 | WENG Heidi | 1991 | NOR | 45:20.8 | 30.11 | |
| 10 | IVANOVA Julia | 1985 | RUS | 45:21.2 | 30.24 |
Men’s 15k Freestyle Pursuit
| Rank | Bib | Name | Year | Nation | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | SUNDBY Martin Johnsrud | 1984 | NOR | 36:50.6 |
| 2 | 12 | VYLEGZHANIN Maxim | 1982 | RUS | 36:50.7 |
| 3 | 15 | LEGKOV Alexander | 1983 | RUS | 36:51.2 |
| 4 | 23 | MANIFICAT Maurice | 1986 | FRA | 36:54.6 |
| 5 | 18 | USTIUGOV Sergey | 1992 | RUS | 36:55.1 |
| 6 | 17 | HALFVARSSON Calle | 1989 | SWE | 36:55.2 |
| 7 | 26 | HELLNER Marcus | 1985 | SWE | 37:01.8 |
| 8 | 14 | JESPERSEN Chris Andre | 1983 | NOR | 37:02.3 |
| 9 | 38 | HOFFMAN Noah | 1989 | USA | 37:02.8 |
| 10 | 8 | BESSMERTNYKH Alexander | 1986 | RUS | 37:03.3 |