Davos Sprints: Same Old, Same Old

Sorry about the delay folks, a vicious bout of food poisoning had me doing the old fashion bed-to-toilet shuttle run all of yesterday and last night, but I finally got around to the race this morning so here it goes…

Today (yesterday) saw the continued domination of Bjørgen and Jönsson continued in the sprint arena today. Both won handily in their finals to take the victories 1600 meters above sea level. Since Friday, there had been 40 centimeters of snow that had fallen, but the course staff did an excellent job of making the tracks suitable for racing.

Here’s the play-by-play from the heats…

1/4 FINALS-WOMEN

1. All three Swedes who qualified in the women’s heats were desperately unlucky to be all in the first heat. Bjørgen took the lead and had a ski length lead over Lina Anersson after the first climb up the hill. Visnar, Andersson and Ingmarsdotter chased with Ingmarsdotter over taking Visnar in the finishing straight to earn third. Lina Andersson followed Bjørgen across the finish line for the second.

2. Follis took the early lead but was quickly over-taken by Kylloenen. However, it was Follis who lead through the lap closely followed by Brun-Lie and Falla going up the main hill the second time. Follis pulled away from the pack on the hill the second time and only Falla was able to followed right through to the finish.

3. Peraelae was the quickest out of the blocks, but it was Jacobsen led at the halfway point. Fessel retook the lead with Jacobsen and Nikolaeva stalking going through the hairpin turn before the main hill. The German destroyed the pack going up the main hill to stretch them out, but Fajban realized this and moved up to third and in contact with the German. However, the Norwegian was able to grab an automatic qualifying spot and hold off the hard charging Slovenian.

4. Majdic took the early lead with Muranen behind and it stayed that way until the second time up the main hill. Then Muranen put in a big burst up the hill and passed Majdic and Sarasoja followed suit. Coming into the finish, Muranan took the direct line which bumped Majdic into third and the Sloevnian was unable to recover. However, it was the fastest heat by far which meant that Majdic and Korosteleva grabbed the lucky loser spots.

5. Kowalczyk and Hermann early leaders going to the hairpin. Kowalczyk led up the first hill, and most of the second lap. Coming into the finish, Randall moved to the front and put in a burst to make sure she won the heat. Kowalczyk had to try hard to hold off Madge Genuin  who was coming up fast on the Pole.

MEN

1. Off the start, Switzerland’s Joeri Kindschi put a pole between his legs and fell down but was able to regain contact with the field before the first hill. Pellegrino was at front and never looked back. He was joined by teammate Renato Pasini and the two opened up a gap on the field along with Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson. At the finish, it was Pasini who took the heat win with Pellegrino beating out Halfvarsson for second place.

2. Newell led through the first half of the race and was joined by Pål Golberg and Hattestad up front. Hattestad takes lead on downhill, Newell and Hattestad have broken with Scola close behind. In the finish it was Hattestad with the win and Scola and Newell lunged for second. It had to go to photo finish to realize that the Italian was a toe ahead of Newell.

3. With two Russians in this heat, it was the 26th fastest qualifier Michail Devjatiarov who set the early pace and was followed by Jönsson, but through the lap the Swede took over from the Russian and went three wide with the Devjatiarov and Hellner. Hellner led up main hill the second time with Dejartov and Jönsson breathing down his neck, but it was a classic Jonsson finish as both the Swede’s went through. Devjatiarov faded late while Petukhov came on strong in the second lap to grab one of the lucky loser spots.

4. Cologna took the early lead with Valjas tucking in behind in second. Cologna opened up a lead on the downhill, but everyone came back together on the second rotation. Behind Cologna, Modin came up to Valjas while Gløersen went through to second on the inside. Great skiing from Modin who went from third to first in the downhill snake turn, to lead into the finish. Modin was able to win the heat with Cologna out lunging Gløersen for second place. However, the heat was fast enough for Gløersen to get the second lucky loser spot.

5. Harald Wurm almost ate snow early on but did not lose much time. Clausen took early lead and was up and over the hill, but Morilov was leading on the downhill. Going through the second time, it was the other Norwegian Brandsdal who took the lead and coming into the finish, only Morilov seemed to keep pace as the Norwegian and Russian easily advanced.

1/2 FINALS – WOMEN

1. Jacobsen was the early leader with Follis and Andersson tucking in behind. Bjørgen was back in fourth position going up the main hill. Going down, Jacobsen and Follis put a big gap in between them and the other four, but Bjørgen had amazing skied and was able to glide right into the back. It was Follis who led up the hill as Bjørgen came through and was in second on the downhill, going through the snake turn Bjørgen seemlessly went by Follis on the inside. At the finish it was Bjørgen from Follis who was able to hold off Majdic. This heat was a startling seven seconds quicker than the quarter-final. Majdic again grabbed a lucky loser spot along with Jacobsen.

2. Muranen lead out, but Kowalczyk took the lead up and over the main hill. Going through the lap, Randall moved into second while Fessel moved into third. Going up the hill the second time, it was Randall and Kowalczyk two wide and were able to burn off the others on the downhill. Coming into the finish, Randall pulled out and easily passed Kowalczyk for the heat win.

MEN

1. Three Italians in the mens first final. Hattestad and Pellegrino led the pack up the hill the first time. The Italians Pellegrino and Pasini pulled and passed the Norwegian. Gløersen tried to take over but it was three Italians in the lead going down the hill. Near fall between the two Italians, Pasini and Pelligrino as they went through the hiarpin turn a second time and got temporarily tangled. At the finish, it was Pelligrino and Scola able to go to the final.

2. Petukhov was in last at the end of the first lap, but moved up to the front by the end finishing straight. However, it as Jönsson who uses his trump card again, but Petukhov took the victory just a toe ahead of Jönsson as they both stepped off the gas with ten meters to go. The heat was fast enough for both Morilov and Cologna to earn lucky loser spots

FINAL-WOMEN

Majdic led out with Follis and Bjørgen right behind, Randall was in fourth. Majdic continued to lead with Bjørgen moving right in behind Majdic coming through the lap. Bjørgen moved ahead through the lap and was followed by Kowalczyk, with Randall trying to keep up with Follis on her tails. Coming into the stadium, Bjørgen had a healthy lead but behind Follis was pulling through for second. On the other side, Randall was coming up on Kowalczyk and appeared to be passing her before Kowalczyk completely cut her off. This meant that Kowalczyk temporarily earned third place. However, the jury quickly relegated Kowalczyk to sixth place which meant that Randall earned her second podium finish in as many weekends.

RESULT
1. Marit Bjørgen
2. Arianna Follis
3. Kikkan Randall

MEN

Jönsson and Pellegrino took the initial lead, but coming around the hairpin up the hill it was Petukhov who took the lead to dictate the pace. Down the hill and into the stadium for the lap, he was followed by Cologna. Jönsson was able to squeak by Petukhov going around the hairpin with a great bit of ++italicize++ track-craft to take the lead up and over the hill while Petukhov and Cologna scrambled to try to minimize the damage. Coming into the finishing straight it was Jönsson from Petukhov and Cologna and that did not change at the finish line. Jönsson put on the turbo to hold off the attack from  Petukov and Cologna.

RESULT
1. Emil Jönsson
2. Alexey Petukhov
3. Dario Cologna

REFLECTION

I feel like I would be wasting words if I talked about Bjørgen and Jönsson’s awesomeness. At this point in the season, it already feels like beating a dead horse when I talk about them and their dominance.

The team that has really impressed the past couple weeks is the Italians. Led by Follis, the men’s sprint team has emerged from nowhere to be a dominant force. They had four men including top qualifier and junior athlete Federico Pellegrino in the top 30 today. Pellegrino and Scola made it all the way to the final, but failed to make it onto the podium. As for Scola, another very impressive performance with his fourth place. Hopefully his good run of form will last a little longer. It’s always great to see fresh faces on the sprint scene.

For the Italian women, there were three women; Follis, Genuin, and relative unknown Elisa Brocard to make it into the top. I´m not sure how much the wax technicians have to do with it, but watching the race, the Italian skis were flying. Regardless, another great team effort.

The majority of the talking points today, came in the women’s final with Kowalczyk and Randall. I was glad to see the FIS take such swift action on Kowalczyk after her blatant and dirty block on Randall. If you thought it was harsh to relegate the Pole to 6th place, then sorry, but you are an idiot.

Rightfully so, Randall got on the podium after a very good day for her. I’m sure the reaction will be beaten to death over at FasterSkier so I won’t go into the details. Apparently, the Polish Ski Association have filed an appeal on behalf of Kowalczyk, but frankly, I have no clue what purpose this is going to serve except a massive waste of paper-work. If you have seen the incident, Kowalczyk was in her own lane, but as soon as Randall started to come up on her right side, she moved into the American’s lane for no reason. There was nothing to cause Kowalczyk to move lanes other than the fact that she was going to be past and knocked off the podium.

It’s interesting to note that Randall and Kowalczyk were in all the same heats, and in all the heats, Randall passed Kowalczyk in the final straight stretch each time expect the final.

Another skier that has me slightly worried is Majdic the past couple weeks. Her fourth place today is awefully flattering as she advanced to the final with lucky loser spots and hasn’t shown the dominant Majdic we came to expect last year. Hopefully she’ll turn it around in time for the Tour de Ski in less than three weeks.
Finally, when was the last time a World Cup sprint final didn’t feature any Norwegian men?

Til next time.