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Race Reports
Women: 15km - 5/5km Pursuit - 10km - Sprint - Relay - 30km
Men: 15km - 10/10km Pursuit - 30km - Sprint - Relay - 50km

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Women's 15km Classic - February 15

In the first race of the 2001 World Championships Norway broke its gold medal drought in Lahti. Bente Skari (nee Martensen) held a slender lead from start to finish to win the 15km classic by 7.7 seconds from of Olga Danilova from Russia. Kaisa Varis from Finland, coming back to good form after a shoulder injury early in the season, took third place over one minute off the pace.

Danilova was one of the earlier starters in the seeded "red" group, and posted the time for the others to chase. But while several Finns threw their hats into the ring early on (three finished in the top 6) only Skari was able to match Danilova's pace.

Of the North Americans, Milaine Theriault made up considerable time over the last few kilometres to sneak into 25th place a couple of seconds ahead of fellow Canadian Beckie Scott. Wendy Wagner from the USA also made it into the World Cup points in 29th place, with Nina Kemppel taking 35th place.

Camille Melvey finished in 60th place out of a start field of 67. Camille wasn't completely satisfied with her performance, and is keen to try to move up a couple more places in the 5km classic first leg of the pursuit on Sunday. Her grip wax was quite good, however glide may have comprimised somewhat in the effort to ensure good grip on the tough course. A fall on one of the downhills didn't help much either.

Men 15km Classic - February 15

A very interesting opening race for the men. First was the anouncement before the start that 1999 World Championship star Mika Myllylae had withdrawn from the race. Then a lot of changes in positions during the race. Thomas Alsgaard was the early leader at 2.2km, and was still within 7 seconds at 7.8km. From there the slide began and Alsgaard worked his way down to 17th place - whether from wax, a crash, or whether he just died in the arse is unclear, but may be revealed on the Norwegian Wintersport website. The new race leader at 7.8km was 42 year old Harri Kirvesniemi, who won the 15km classic at the last Lahti World Championships in 1989. However Matthias Fredriksson and Per Elofsson of Sweden, and Andrus Veerpalu from Estonia, were all hot on his heels. Fredricksson may have taken the lead for a while, but at the 13.2km mark Elofsson was away to a 12 second break, with Finn Jari Isometsae another 8 seconds back and Norwegian Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset coming through to 4th place. Elofsson went on to win in the time of 39 minutes and 26 seconds, 16.6 seconds clear from team-mate Fredriksson, with Hjelmeset squeezing into 3rd place less than a second ahead of Isometsae.

One thing that has to be mentioned is that many many men in the race today had a very liberal definition of "classic" technique. Most of the top skiers could easily have been deemed to be skating, not just on flat or downhill corners, but on uphill corners and on flat straights. It was clear to spectators out on the track, it was evident also on the TV coverage. After watching Hjelmeset marathon-skating into the finish straight one might feel sorry for Isometsae missing out on a bronze medal, until however one sees Isometsae doing exactly the same thing. The problem with disqualifying anyone is that half the field would be scrubbed. Some clarification of the rules are needed here.

To the North-Americans, Justin Wadworth from the US scored another World Cup point in 30th place, 7 seconds or so ahead of Donald Farley from Canada in 32nd place. Robin McKeever (CAN) was next in 42nd place, and Marcus Nash (US) probably not happy with his 50th place.

There was not much between Paul Murray and Ben Derrick throughout the race. They finished in 66th and 68th place, with Paul 17 seconds ahead. Both had very good grip, but like Camille perhaps lacked a little on glide. The grip wax of choice was Rex universal, temperature about plus 5. Neither of the guys felt that they skied particularly well. Both said that they were "shit-scared" waiting around at the athlete's village before the race. The next races they will possibly and hopefully be a bit more relaxed. One-day pursuit coming up on Sunday.

Men 10km Classic/10km Freestyle Pursuit - February 17

Another exciting day of racing for the men. The field was pretty tight in the 10km classic, with only a couple of seconds separating the top 3 for most of the race and then a stack of skiers from 30 to 60 seconds behind. The fastest was Mika Myllylae, just ahead of Finnish team-mate Jari Isometsae and 15km gold medalist Per Elofsson. Another Finn, Janne Immonen was 4th, with some of the other big names Muhlegg in 7th, 29.4 seconds behind, and Alsgaard in 15th, 45.4 seconds off the pace.

To make the top 60 and qualify for the pursuit you had to make it under 2 minutes 22 seconds behind Myllylae. Canadian Donald Farley qualified in 41st place, but decided to skip the pursuit and save himself for the 30km instead. The only US guy to qualify was Kris Freeman in 59th place. The news on Marcus Nash, who finished 65th, is that he is unsatisfied with his form and will fly back to the USA tomorrow.

Ben Derrick felt he skied better today, though his result wasn't helped from the slide he took on his bum at the first corner at about 1km. He finished more strongly, placing 80th, 15.85% behind the leader and about 1:30 outside of qualifying. Paul Murray was up on Ben early on (before Ben's fall), but he also fell twice, and was looking a bit tired towards the end. He placed 83rd, 1:10 behind Ben and 20.68% behind the leader. It is likely now that Paul will skip the 30km classic to concentrate on the sprint. The wax - covered purple klister for Paul and a mix of Start stick waxes for Ben.

The first action in the pursuit was the withdrawal of Myllylae before the start. Myllylae had indicated earlier that he would use the race today to come into form for the 30km on Monday, but the word going around was that he had a fever. Whether he will be okay for the 30km remains to be seen; sometimes when you are not quite 100% you can have one blinder of a race and then be trashed. Anyway, back to the race.

Elofsson catches Isometsae within the first kilometre, and goes straight to the front. Muhlegg also quickly passes a couple of skiers, and leads a group including Fredriksson from Sweden and Denisov from Russia. This group soon picks up Janne Immonen, with a sizable gap back to the next chasing skiers. After 3.2km Isometsae takes the lead back from Elofsson, but the Swede seems very comfortable sitting behind and stands up a few times in the Finn's slipstream. At 5km the gap back to Muhlegg and his group is 24.7 seconds, with Valbusa from Italy leading the growing second pack. At about 6km Elofsson ever so casually glides past Isometsae in a tuck, but when he takes the lead he doesn't seem to really pick up the pace. Muhlegg however has gone for it, spreading out his pack and at the 6.7km mark the gap up to Elofsson is only about 14 seconds. But then Elofsson puts his foot down and a gap appears between him and Isometsae, 5m, 10m, and Elofsson is away. At 7.7km the gap is 5.5 seconds, and now 17.2 back to Muhlegg. Back in 7th place Hetland from Norway leads a huge pack. Immonen is soon a casualty - a broken pole (not sure how this happened, maybe a fall) and he is out of the race, again! Isometsae keeps working hard and the time between he and Elofsson stays about the same, but the race and a second gold medal belong to the Swede. Isometsae seems quite ecstatic about his silver medal, and Muhlegg is also happy with his bronze. Denisov takes 4th comfortably, Fredriksson 5th, and then Alsgaard wins a huge pack sprint to take 6th place. The fastest skating time of the day goes to Markus Hasler from Liechtenstein, who moved from 31st to 7th, his best result for a long time. Kris Freeman finishes 55th.

Women 5km Classic/5km Freestyle Pursuit - February 18

Another day of action with the women's pursuit. The 5km classic first, and it was very close early on amongst Skari, Lazutina, Danilova, three Finns - Kuitunen, Jauho and Varis - and also Canadian Beckie Scott. Belmondo and Tschepalova at the front of the red group were first into the finish, but Danilova shortly after posted a faster time and turned around to wait for the others. Beckie Scott lost a bit of time in the last km or so but was still 5 seconds clear from Russians Gavriljuk and Tschepalova. Then Skari came in and knocked everyone down a place, 9 seconds ahead of Danilova. Lazutina split the two, 5.7 seconds behind Skari, and then a huge roar came up as Varis and Kuitunen entered the stadium. Varis slotted into 7th place between Belmondo and Scott, but it was Kuitunen who had a shot at Skari's time, finishing 2nd just 2.5 seconds behind.

Camille Melvey skied a much better race than in the 15km classic, and felt that her technique was coming together and that she was coming into better form. She placed 70th out of the field of 79, 3:39.2 behind Skari which is about 24.5 %. Camille raced on her new Peltonen skis that she received only a week ago - the camber of the skis seemed good for Camille and glide quite good despite only having been waxed about 10 times. Grip wax was about layers of Rode multigrade with Rode super extra over the top, and it was good.

The initial evaluation before the pursuit was that Lazutina would be the one to watch, Belmondo had a chance from 18 seconds behind, possibly Varis from 25 seconds, but that Tchepalova at 40 seconds had too much to make up.

And they're off. Skari, Kuitenen, Lazutina, and Danilova bunch up early, with Skari in front. Belmondo flies out of the start, past Jauho, and looks like she will be the one. In less than a km Belmondo seems to be up within about 10 seconds of the pack. But then Lazutina goes for it, straight to the front and stretches out the front pack. At 1.7km the gap back to Belmondo is back out to about 15 seconds, with Varis in 6th at about 22 seconds. Tchepalova has also made up time, about 31 off Lazutina. Then suddenly Danilova ovetakes Lazutina and Lazutina looks to be only just hanging on. At 2.7 km the time splits are:
0.0 Danilova
1.4 Lazutina
7.8 Kuitunen
11.6 Skari
18.1 Belmondo
25.5 Varis
29.7 Tchepalova

Danilova continues to hammer and the gap is opening up from Lazutina, and also the time back to the chasing Belmondo, Varis and Tchepalova also increases. Kuitunen stays about the same distance behind Lazutina. With 1.5 km to go it looks like the race is Danilova's. Kuitunen works hard along the flat at the top of the course, and almost regains contact with Lazutina as they hit the downhill past the waxing cabins. And then Kuitunen is past Lazutina. All three leaders go flat out up the last hill. They come out onto the downhill above the stadium, and it is apparent that Kuitunen has very good skis. The gap to Danilova is slowly closing. Kuitunen takes the hairpin corner slightly better and it apparent that she will catch the Russian. The Finnish crowd is going crazy. On the back straight Kuitenen draws up to Danilova and goes straight past. It doesn't seem possible but the crowd erupts more. There is no stopping the Finn and she goes on to win the gold medal. Lazutina draws up behind Danilova as they hit the final straight and edges closer and closer. Danilova can do nothing to stop her, even lets her draw level in the same finish corridor, they both lunge and Lazutina takes the silver, Danilova the bronze. The next three way sprint sees Belmondo take 4th, 18 seconds off the pace, with Skari 5th and Varis 6th. Tchepalova, with the fastest skating time of the day takes 7th place. Beckie Scott finishes 11th, her best result at a World Championship.

Men 30km Classic - February 19

Several of the biggest names skipped this event, including Per Elofsson, Johann Muhlegg, Thomas Alsgaard, and at the last minute Mika Myllylae. However there was still a very competitive field, and an exciting finish to the race.

At the earliest split at 2.2km most of the contenders had already put their hands up. Andrus Veerpalu from Estonia, winner of the silver medal from the 50km classic at the 1999 World Championships, had his nose in front, just ahead of Norwegians Frode Estil and Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset, Russian Michal Botvinov, and also Italians Fabio Maj and Bruno Carrara. At 7.5 km the splits were:

0.0 Veerpalu
9.2 Estil
18.4 Hjelmeset
21.8 Jevne
24.0 Mikhail Ivanov, Russia
25.1 Anders Aukland, Norway
26.3 Botvinov
29.1 Matthias Fredriksson, Sweden
Then Maj and Kirvesniemi in 9th and 10th place. Carrara had already dropped to 13th place. By 12.2km already it was apparent that Veerpalu with his earlier start number would be the pace maker, Estil was the only only to match his speed and all the others gradually losing time. At 20km Estil came into the stadium for the second time and took the lead from Veerpalu by 3.5 seconds and the battle for the gold medal was on. Frederiksson lost time with a fall, and Hjelmeset and Jevne shuffled around 3rd place about 30 seconds behind Estil. Ivanov was also in contact another 5 seconds back, while Botvinov started to drop places.

At 24.9km Veerpalu had the lead again from Estil by 2 seconds. When all had passed the mark Jevne had dropped to fifth and Ivanov moved up to within a second of Hjelmeset. Cut to the stadium and Veerpalu just about marathon skated around into the finishing straight, and went in to post a 30km time of 1 hr 14 min and 17.9 seconds. Fredriksson crosses the line into 2nd place, but it wont last long. Estil passes the 28.5km mark and he is still 2 seconds behind. He takes the haripin corner well and as he comes down into the stadium it is clear that it is going to be close. Into the final straight and the crowd is going wild, in the stadium and in front of the television at the athlete's village. The seconds count past, 15, 16, 17 and Estil lunges across the line....0.2 seconds behind Veerpalu. The Estonian wins the gold and Estil the silver. The camera goes back to Ivanov and the Russian is gaining time on everyone but only enough to secure the bronze medal, 31.2 seconds behind Veerpalu. Jevne had caught Maj but now the Italian has gone nearly 10 seconds clear, and he just misses out on Fredriksson's time by 0.1 seconds. If Jevne had been able to stay with Maj he could have had a shot at 3rd place but he is 8 seconds off the podium. Hjelmeset fades and takes 5th place, Fredriksson ends up 6th.

Women 10km Classic - February 20

Unfortunately no real race report today as the team was caught up with waxing and cheering for Camille. Bente Skari won her second gold medal of the championships, Olga Danilova her second silver to go with a bronze, and Larissa Lazutina a bronze to go with her silver. From the splits, the only change in the top 3 skiers during the race was that Danilova lead Skari at 1.9km, but from then on it was Skari slowly easing away to win by 12.9 seconds at the finish. Belmondo started slowly but closed on Lazutina to be within 14 seconds at the end take 4th place. Conversely Varis was 4th for the first two splits and then dropped to 6th. Kuitunen finished 6th.

Camille raced for the second time on her new Peltonens, which Bob Cranage had put in a Toko heat bag to help absorb wax. They seemed to run well, and grip wax this time was Rode purple klister covered with Swix VR60 stick, over Start base wax. Does that cover most wax companies? Camille finished in 62nd place, 21.88% behind the winner, and continues to improve with each race.

Women Sprint Freestyle, February 21

The first ever sprint event at a cross country skiing world championship. The 1.5km course in Lahti is tougher than most sprint courses used on world cup, though Ben Derrick says the course to be used next year in Salt Lake City is perhaps even tougher. A big climb from the start to the top of the course, a long downhill ending in a hairpin corner which saw a lot of practise, and then 250m flat in the stadium. A time trial was run first using a 20 second interval start, with only the top 16 qualifying for the finals. The top 10 skiers from the sprint FIS point list started first, followed by the sprint "Red" group with the best World Cup sprint points.

Finnish World Junior Champion Pirjo Manninen came into the event as the crowd favourite, and she didn't let the capacity crowd down. Not sure how many, but by the finals the stadiums were packed solid, including half of the jumping stadium who could just about only see the action on the big screen. Maybe 50,000? Manninen posted a time nearly 4 seconds clear from second fastest qualifier Julia Tschepalova (RUS). All four Finnish starters made the final 16, and also the four Norwegians squeezed into the last four places. Beckie Scott from Canada qualified 6th fastest, a fantastic effort. Camille Melvey finished 54th out of the 58 starters, sprint definitely not being her event.

In the first three quarter finals the highest ranked qualifiers all made it through to the semi finals. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (FIN) - who is coached by Australian team wax technician Marko Passila - had a tough heat against Gavrijuk (RUS), Valbusa (ITA) and Skari (NOR), and was just knocked out in the finishing straight. Skari, who came into the sprints as one of the favourites, was never really in contention. Manninen lead all the way to progress comfortably along with Russian unknown Buruhina. Tchepalova and Pienimaki (FIN) also made it without too much difficulty. The hardest fought quarter final was between Sundqvist (FIN), Scott, Kuenzel (GER), and Moen (NOR). Little seperated the four for most of the race, and all had a chance coming around the back of the stadium. Sundqvist went across the line first, while Scott didn't get the best run down the straight and was pipped by Moen.

In the first semi final Manninen, Buruhina, Gavriljuk and Valbusa were all very tight going up the big hill, however Manninen seemed to accelerate over the top and created a small break. The others fought hard, but never quite got back in contact, and then Valbusa finished strongly to take the other final place. In the second semi final Tchepalova was very impressive. She established a huge break on the hill, leaving Pienimaki, Sundqvist and Moen scrambling behind. But while Tchepalova was never really threatened for the rest of the race, Sundqvist made up a lot of ground on the downhill and in the stadium to close within about 10m and take the last position in the final.

So to the final, two Finns, a Russian and an Italian. The Finns lead out of the start, and whether it was deliberate or not the two stayed side by side and basically prevented Tchepalova from going for it the same as she had in the semi. Up over the last steep pinch Manninen did her stuff again and broke clear. The noise died down slightly as Manninen approached the hairpin, but then it erupted again as the19 year old from Rovaniemi made it through unscathed and flew down into the stadium. Sundqvist had worked hard on the downhill to move into second place ahead of Tchepalova. Pirjo Manninen went on seemingly effortlessly to take the gold medal, and Sundqvist turned the tables on Tchepalova from the semi to make it a Finnish double. Not a close finish but an incredible atmosphere for the first World Championship Sprint.

Men Sprint Freestyle, February 21

Three of the big favourites took the top positions in the men's time trial. Christian Zorzi from Italy, who won the test event in Lahti last year posted the fastest time of 3 minutes 3.19 seconds, followed by Hetland from Norway and Schlickenrieder from Germany. Martin Koukal from Czech put in a great effort to qualify 10th despite breaking a pole. Thomas Alsgaard was very lucky to scrape into 16th place as he had the same time as Krezelok from Poland, the Norwegian qualifying by virtue only of his lower sprint ranking. Carl Swenson from the USA was only 3.5 seconds outside the cutoff in 24th place.

Paul Murray finished in 55th place out of 64, scored FIS points of about 101 for about the 6th time this season. The tough course took it's toll up the last part of the hill, and Paul was just over 23 seconds off the pace of Zorzi, which corresponds to about 12.7 %. And also for about the 6th time in a sprint this season, Ben Derrick was within 2 seconds of Paul, in 57th place and 13.7 %. To qualify for the finals you had to be within 5.66 seconds.

The men's quarter finals were all very close, and position over the top of the hill played a big part in the race outcomes. Though all four skiers were often in contact coming into the stadium, coming from the 3rd or 4th to qualify was difficult but not impossible. In the first quarter Zorzi lead it out from Fauner (ITA) and Pyykonen(FIN), while Alsgaard seemed to struggle early and lost contact with the pack. Coming into the straight Zorzi still led from Fauner, but Pyykonen was having a go and Alsgaard finally seemed to get going and made up huge ground in the stadium. The Norwegian finished incredibly fast and almost pulled off a miracle, but Fauner just edged him out and the Italians went through. Another close finish in the second quarter, with Hogberg (SWE) and sprint veteran Palolahti (FIN) qualifying. Hetland and Solbakken (NOR) lead the third quarter most of the way, but Koukal and Tobias Fredriksson (SWE) still a chance in the straight until they nearly collided and Koukal broke another pole. In the final quarter the Germans Sommerfeldt and Schlickenrieder qualified.

The first semi - Zorzi, Fauner, Hogberg and Palolahti. Zorzi again went from the front, but Hogberg gave it a real crack at the top of the hill and almost took top spot. Still very close in the stadium and into the straight, but it looked like Zorzi and Hogberg would go through until Palolahti pulled something out of nowhere and knocked out Hogberg. The second semi - the two Germans and the two Norwegians. The start and the first part of the uphill critical, and all went hell for leather. Coming into the hairpin corner all four were bunched up very close, the Norwegians ahead of Schlickenrieder. We were cheering for Schlickenrieder and it still seemed possible round into the final straight, but no-one made much progress down the straight and the Nowegians crossed one and two. It looked as though Sommerfeldt crossed in into Schlickenrieder's lane in the closing stages, but the Norwegians looked to have it already. There was a delay and it was announced that Germany made a protest, but about what and against home we here do not know.

And so the final, Zorzi, Hetland, Solbakken, Palolahti. The usual story again, very tight up the hill with everone trying to get the prime spot over the top of the hill. Something different this time as positions changed slightly coming into the hair pin corner, and then Hetland pulled the gutsiest or some might say most reckless move of the whole event. You have to see the video footage to describe exactly what happened, but basically he went all or nothing into the corner and came out in front. But if it didn't come off there could have been the hugest pile-up. Hetland lead into the stadium and around into the striaght, Zorzi threw everything at him but couldn't quite get there, Solbakken was also there and Palolahti tried to come from behind again but there were the medals, gold to Hetland, silver to Zorzi, and bronze to Solbakken. Got to get that video tape.

Men's 4 by 10km Relay, February 22

On the first leg the pack stayed fairly solid for most of the first lap, as often happens. The first major casualty was Italy, as Valbusa lost contact and worked his way back to 13th place. Estil from Norway lead for the first lap, but then faded along with Sweden, as Immonen from Finland, Veerpalu from Estonia, and Denisov from Russia picked up the pace. Filbrich from Germany looked shaky early but then put in a great performance to stick with the three drivers until the last few kilometres. Denisov took the lead trio to the change, with Filbrich 10 seconds back in 4th, Sweden another 5 back in 5th and Norway in 7th behind Switzerland.

Second leg, Mae for Estonia, Kirvesniemi for Finland, Hjelmeset for Norway, Fredriksson for Sweden, Schluetter for Germany, Ivanov for Russia. Ivanov may have dreamed of big things but he soon managed to work his way back. Mae and Kirvesniemi worked together but the big mover behind was Norway and Hjelmeset picked up Fredericksson along the way. The gap slowly closed and at about 8km or so (lost notepad) Norway and Sweden joined Finland and Estonia. Hjelmeset lead into the 2nd change as the atmosphere began to build.

Estonia were always going to fall back after the first two legs and they did so. Norway in perhaps a surprise move put Alsgaard on the 3rd leg, and the question now was whether Repo for Finland and Ingesson for Sweden would be able to match the pace. The answer was yes and no, as Ingesson soon lost contact. The next question would be if Ingesson could stay close enough to give Elofsson a chance on the last leg, and the answer again was no as Ingesson dropped back to 5th place over 1:15 behind. Now, Repo, Alsgaard. Waiting waiting for Alsgaard to make his move, but like 1994 when Alsgaard last skied the 3rd leg for Norway in Lillehammer, it never really came. In fact Repo pulled out with a km to go and tried to go past, but the two went to the final change together.Ron Spanuth skied a very solid leg to bring Germany into 3rd place 48 seconds off the pace, Russia held 4th 1 minute behind. Piller Cotter skied the fastest leg to bring the Italians up to 7th.

The final battle. For Norway Tor-Arne Hetland, direct from his sprint victory the night before. For Finland Mika Myllylae, the bigger name but one with a question mark over his head after his withdrawal from the pursuit and 30km due to illness. Sommerfeldt for Germany, baby-face Villisov for Russia, the Man Per Elofsson for Sweden. Within 1km Myllylae let Hetland know there was no easy ride, as he put the foot down and made a 20m break. The plot started to get interesting when Hetland promptly reduced the gap on the next downhill, but Myllylae wasted no time in bringing the pace up again. The question mark popped into thin air as Myllylae opened a break up again, and this time kept it going. 5 seconds, 12 seconds, the Finn was gone and showing no signs of slowing down. Hetland had no answer and maybe the sprint from the night before had taken a bit out of his legs. Back behind Elofsson had already picked up Russia and was closing on Germany. Could he possible make up 1:15 on Hetland? No. No surpises from then on. Myllylae and Finland go on to claim the prized World Championship relay gold, Norway takes silver again (the favourites losing to Italy in 1994 and Austria in 1999), and Elofsson skied the fastest last leg to take the bronze for Sweden. (Ben Derrick notes that the home country has won the last three World Championship relays, Norway, Austria, Finland. Will it be Italy in 2003?). Germany 4th, Russia 5th, Austria 6th with a good leg by Christian Hoffmann, and Italy 7th.

Women's 4 by 5km Relay

With the form of the Finnish women at these championships it seemed possible that the "unbeatable" Russian relay team could be under threat. First two legs classic, where the Norwegians would also be strong, and then two skating legs, where the Italians usually play the chasing game. The Russian's opened hard with Danilova, two silver medals and a bronze to her name already, and she managed to break in the first kilometre. Chasing behind were Kuitunen from Finland, Moen from Norway, Scott from Canada, and Paruzzi from Italy. But Danilova didn't go too far, and at two kilometres Russia led by 3.5 seconds to Finland, with Norway at 5.4 and Canada at 6.7 seconds. Italy however was starting to suffer and back to 12 seconds just ahead of Sweden. Kuitunen fought back and was back on Danilova after the 3km mark. Perhaps Danilova had started too fast, as on the last hill Kuitunen went for it and started to draw away. Beckie Scott dropped of Moen for a while then caught up again. Into the stadium and at the first change the splits were:

FIN 0.0
RUS +7.1
NOR +28.8
CAN +31.1
ITA +39.6
SUI +46.5
GER +46.7
USA +56.6
SWE +57.0

For Russia it was now Lazutina, she quickly closed the gap on Milla Jauho from Finland and then went straight past. Norway now had Skari, who as the dominant classic skier of the championships was likely to make some ground. Theriault for Canada started to lose a little time to the leaders, but not too much. At 3.2km (?) Lazutina had a 14 second lead over Jauho, with Skari 18 behind and closing fast, and Italy, Germany and Canada all very close at about 46 seconds. But the Russian faded slightly towards the end (also didn't take the corner into the stadium very fast)and at the second change the splits were:

RUS 0.0
NOR +4.8
FIN +9.8
GER +46.0
ITA +48.7
CAN +52.0
SWE, SUI

Tchpalova flew off for the Russians, and in just over a km the gap was out to 15 seconds back to Varis from Finland. Varis overtook Norway at about 1.4km and kept on going, but Tchepalova's lead went to 22 seconds at 1.7km and 30 seconds at 2.7km. Gaps were appearing all over the place, with the German team losing the most time and dropping back amongs the field. Any hopes Finland had of taking down Russia were going out the window. Italy was gaining time on Norway, but would it be enough to give Belmondo a chance on the final leg? And Canada through Fortier were back in 5th place ahead of Sweden as the Germans went further back. At the third change the splits were:

RUS 0.0
FIN +43.4
NOR +1:13.8
ITA +1:48.8
CAN +2:11.9
SWE +2:21.7
SUI +2:28.8
GER + 2:29.5

Now the participants were Gavriljuk for Russia, Manninen for Finland, Pedersen for Norway, Belmondo for Italy, Renner for Canada, Olsen for Sweden. Any hopes Manninen and the Finnish crowd had of a miracle come back were dashed as Gavriljuk continued on the good work of Tchepalova and extended the lead. Norway were also making time slowly against Finland. Behind Belmondo was working hard and at 1.7km the gap up to Norway was down to 30 seconds. At 2.7km there was 1 minute from Russia back to Finland, another 26 back to Norway, and 22 back to Italy. But over the closing kilometres Pedersen dug in deep for Norway, and their bronze medal was secure. Gavriljuk went on with job and carried a Russian flag down the straight to give Russia their 6th straight World Championship relay gold, unbeaten since the last Lahti championships in 1989. Finland took silver, only 6 seconds ahead of Norway but not really threatened, and Italy finished out of the medals. Germany made up a lot of ground on the last leg to take 5th place, just ahead of Sweden and Canada who sprinted to the line for 6th and 7th, only about a boot length apart. A very good result for Canada, perhaps their best ever at a World Championship, 7th place and only 3 seconds from 5th.

Men 50km Freestyle

The women's 30km had already been cancelled due to the cold, and it was touch and go for the men's 50km for a while, before the jury decided to go ahead. Again Finnish star Mika Myllylae was on the start list and didn't start, for reasons that would become clearer later on. Peter Schlickenrieder from Germany was announced as a non starter in the stadium, however he rushed out of the start a minute or so later after having come to the start area with one of the German women's race numbers and having to return to the wax cabins to get the right one. The red group started at the back, however several early starters were posting fast splits, including Prokurorov and Krianin from Russia, and also Carl Swenson from the USA. But after all the red group had passed 10km on the first lap it was apparent that Johann Muhlegg from Spain was going to be one to watch out for. The next couple of places were occupied by Pietro Piller Cottrer from Italy, Per Elofsson from Sweden, Valbusa from Italy, and Christian Hoffmann and Mikhail Botvinov from Austria.

Of the front runners Botvinov was one of the early casualties, pulling out somewhere on the third lap of four. Piller Cottrer stayed up in second place for along time, but Muhlegg began to extend his lead. Up the front Krianin was cranking past all who started ahead of him, and jumped past the bigger name skiers like Hoffmann and Elofsson into third place. Towards the end of the third lap Muhlegg picked up Rene Sommerfeldt from Germany who started two minutes in front, and Sommerfeldt was one of few who managed to climb onto Muhlegg's train. But the last lap is where everything all happens. Piller Cottrer started to suffer, along with compatriot Valbusa. Hoffmann went back into 3rd place past Krianin, and an unknown Russian, Noutrikhine, came out of the woodwork and started to climb the ranks. With start number 19 Noutrikhine crossed the finish line in first place, and turned around to watch the others take a crack at his time. No-one came close until Krianin, who now looked to be set for the podium. Back on the course Sommerfeldt was still hanging on to Muhlegg, sitting in his slipstream and gradually pegging back Krianin's time. Hoffmann really began to die and steadily lose time, and Elofsson who Hoffmann had cuaght from one minute behind skied away. With a km or so to go Sommerfeldt pulled out from behind Muhlegg and went for it. Muhlegg dropped back only a little, and obviously knew he had the race won when he came into the stadium waving to the crowd. Sommerfeldt went hard all the way to the line and just knocked Krianin down to third. Muhlegg indeed took the gold. Elofsson settled into 5th place behind Noutrikhine, before being knocked down to 6th place by one second by Hoffmann.

Carl Swenson dropped towards the end to finish in 21st place, while Justin Wadsworth who had also been up in the low twenties really died in the last 5-6km and dropped down to 35th.

Ben Derrick's plan was to start conservatively and come home strong like he did in the 2000 Keskinada in Canada. Things were looking good early on as his splits were up there and he seemed to be travelling fairly comfortably. After the race Ben revealed that he had overdressed and was too warm despite the cold conditions. After two laps he was sitting pretty at about 50th place out of starting field of 69 skiers (There were 76 on the start list but 7 declined to start.), and in contact with several skiers around him. About this time many of the weaker (and some stronger skiers who had started too fast) suffered in the tough conditions and began to pull out. If was able to follow out his plan and finish solidly, then a very good result was very possible. Unfortunately Ben too began to fade on the last lap, partly due to dehydration from sweating too much under two layers of thermal underwear. After picking up a couple of places from skiers pulling out he dropped a few minutes and a couple of places to end up in 50th place, 14.5% behind the winner Johann Muhlegg. This was Ben's best result at this World Championship and also from other championships, however one can't help think that in the right conditions it could have been something more.

Carve the Elements

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