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 Australian Team Reports 2004/2005 | Main | Files | Results | Links | |
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Oberstdorf, Germany, February 17 - 27 Back to Australian Reports Women: 10km - 15km Pursuit - Relay - Sprint - Sprint Relay - 30km Men: 15km - 30km Pursuit - Relay - Sprint - Sprint Relay - 50km |
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Australian Reports - Official Website - XC Ski World - Faster Skier - Ski Faster - FIS - Cross Country Canada - XC-Ski.de (German)
Men's 50km Classic Mass Start - February 27An incredible event. Dumping snow during the event made for a massive pack at the front of the race. Any skier who went to the front to test out their chances found that it was easier to sit back in the pack. The result was that a pack of about 34 skiers was still together on the last lap and most of those were still in contact within 2-3km of the finish. Norwegians Estil and Hjelmeset and Swede Fredriksson made the pace over the closing stages, finally stretching out the field. Aukland from Norway had to come from further back in the pack but made it up to the leaders just before the drop back down into the stadium. Fredriksson couldn't hold the pace and the three Norwegians had a small gap and the podium spots up for lottery. Estil was way too strong in the final kick and took a well deserved win as he had done much of the work towards the end, Aukland got up for second in his only event of the championships, Hjelmeset took third. A good race for FIS points if you caught a ride on the main train - Dan Roycroft of Canada in 31st place scored 11.87 points.
Men 50km Classic 1 2:30:10.1 NOR Frode Estil 2 2:30:10.8 NOR Anders Aukland 3 2:30:11.5 NOR Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset 4 2:30:15.1 EST Andrus Veerpalu 5 2:30:18.3 SWE Matthias Fredriksson 50 2:48:20.4 AUS Ben Derrick - 12.1% 70 skiers in start
Women's 30km Classic Mass Start - February 26One of the best women's mass start events seen in a long while. A pack of 16 or so whittled down to 8 on the last lap. The main drivers in the pack earlier on were Baranova from Russia and Kowalczyk from Poland also did her fair share. Others in the last 8 included Bjoergen of Norway, Kuitunen and Saarinen of Finland, Kuenzel of Germany, Neumannova from Czech, and Kurkina from Russia. Baranova broke up the pack a little a few laps in a row on one of the hills but it kept coming back together on the flat. Kowalczyk broke a pole near the end of the second last lap and stuffed up a drink on one of the last stations but still managed to be in the final four when the pack was finally split properly. Bjoergen lead the final break away and gained a gap that was never bridged. Kuitunen stayed out of trouble the whole race until the final break went, and coming down to the stadium caught and then passed Baranova. Kowalczyk a gutsy 4th, if she'd skied a smarter race maybe she could have got a medal but she is still only 22 and will hopefully have plenty more opportunities.
Women 30km Classic 1 1:27:05.8 NOR Marit Bjoergen 2 1:27:14.7 FIN Virpi Kuitunen 3 1:27:16.1 RUS Natalie Baranove-Masalkina 4 1:27:18.6 POL Justyna Kowalczyk 5 1:27:21.7 FIN Aino-Kaisa Saarinnen 60 skiers in start
Men's Sprint Relay - February 25Very tough qualifying for the finals, a lot of good teams missed out. In the final one of the favourites Sweden just didn't fire. Norway kicked butt.and won the gold with Hetland and Hofstad. The Canadian men George Grey and Devon Kershaw skied an awesome race to be in contention for a medal right up until the last leg then ended up 6th. Teichmann from Germany came from nowhere to take 2nd place in a sprint with the Czech republic.
Women's Sprint Relay - February 25Where does the time go. Pretty spectacular debut World Championship Sprint Relay (or maybe they are calling it Team Sprint). Norway with Bjoergen on the anchor leg won ahead of Finland with Manninen, with Russia third. Canada were considered a medal chance here but ended up 10th in the final.
Men's Relay - February 24An exciting relay. Sweden blew it on the first leg, Mats Larsson coming in in 10th place and losing over a minute on the top 4 teams Italy, Russia, Norway and Germany. On the second leg it was Germany and Italy's turn to lose contact, droping a minute on Norway and Russia. These two teams cmaintained their lead with Berger and Dementiev on the 3rd leg, while Italy consolidated their position in 3rd. Angerer for Germany fought hard but blew up right at the end to lose time significantly coming into the change. So as they headed out on the final leg it was Norway with Hofstad,together with Bolchakov for Russia, Zorzi for Italy 56 seconds back and Teichmann for Germany 1:35 behind in 4th. Hofstad left Bolchakov behind but Bolchakov looked to have 2nd place in the bag. Zorzi started to look tired at the start of the third 3.3km lap, and Teichmann gaining on all the teams in front started to get a sniff of a medal. He blew past Zorzi with a km and a half to go, and all of a sudden Russia was also within reach. While Hofstad was reaching for Norwegian flags in the finish straight Teichmann drew up behind Bolchakov as the approached the stadium. The sprint was on, and Bolchakov fought hard but Teichmann had his measure as the German crowd went wild. Gemany up for second, Russia third but still pretty satisfied with a relay medal. Three teams out with the overlapping rule, Ukraine, Switzerland and China.
Men's Relay 1 1:39:04.4 NORWAY (Hjelmeset, Estil, Berger, Hofstad) 2 + 17.7 GERMANY (Filbrich, Schluetter, Angerer, Teichmann) 3 + 18.7 RUSSIA (Pankratov, Rotchev, Dementiev, Bolchakov) 4 + 44.9 ITALY (Di Centa, Valbusa, Piller Cottrer, Zorzi)
Women's Sprint - February 22News coming later, top effort by Sara Renner of Canada to take a bronze medal in the A-final against 3 Swedes. Ohrstig the fastest qualifier won ahead of team-mate Andersson.
OK. The upset of the qualifying was the favourite Marit Bjorgen of Norway finishing 17th and missing out on the finals. Bad skis she said to the Norwegian press. The Swedes had something right with Ohrstig, Andersson and Dahlberg taking the top three qualifying spots. Canadians Renner and Scott qualified in 5th and 12th place, putting them into the same quarter-final. Scott was knocked out but a disguised Renner (wearing a new white suit quite similar to the Swedes) made it through to the semis and then on to the A-final. Going over the last hill it looked like she was gone for all money but somehow in the finish straight Andersson and Dahlberg both seemed to falter and the door was opened. Ohrstig was well clear in 1st but a flying finish took Renner past Dahlberg in 3rd place and almost up to Andersson. Celebrations all round in the Swedish and Canadian camps!
Women 0.9km Sprint 1 SWE Emilie Ohrstig 2 SWE Lina Andersson 3 CAN Sara Renner 4 SWE Anna Dahlberg Qualifying 1 2:17.72 SWE Emilie Ohrstig 16 2:24.73 POL Justyna Kowalczyk 51 2:35.98 AUS Esther Bottomley - 13.26% 58 2:40.34 AUS Katherine Calder - 16.43% 61 2:41.27 AUS Clare-Louise Brumley - 17.10% 73 skiers in start
Men's Sprint - February 22Rotchev of Russia won, out double-poling Hetland of Norway in the final straight. Fredriksson from Sweden took third, with compatriot Lind being waxed out of the final to take 4th. Rotchev was the absolutely the man in form, winning the qualifying and incredibly strong in the finals. The Canadian men had a great day, with Devon Kershaw qualifying 13th and George Grey and Drew Goldsack 19th and 21st. Newell from the USA snuck into the finals in 16th place. Iverson from Norway would have to be kicking himself after easing up a little in the finish straight in his 1/4 final only to be caught right on the line and knocked out by Krezoluk of Poland. Fredriksson looked to be out of it in his semi-final but double-poled like an animal to come from nowhere and make the A-final. Lind was strong in the semis but on the first hill in the A-final discovered his skis no longer had enough grop and he was already out of the race after 1 minute. Hetland took the lead up the hill but Rotchev came back as they hit the stradium and it was the Russian who proved to be the double-pole king down the finish straight to take his first major championship gold a metre ahead of Hetland, Fredriksson third.
Men 1.2km Sprint 1 RUS Vassili Rotchev 2 NOR Tor-Arne Hetland 3 SWE Tobias Fredriksson 4 SWE Bjorn Lind Qualifying 1 2:33.52 RUS Vassili Rotchev 16 2:38.40 USA Andrew Newell 31 2:41.11 AUS Paul Murray - 4.94% 54 2:50.39 AUS Ben Sim - 10.99% 64 2:58.42 AUS Andrew Mock - 16.22% 71 3:02.93 AUS Ben Derrick - 19.16% 89 skiers in start
Women's Relay - February 21Maybe a report soon if time permits, it was an exciting race with Norway coming from behind to catch Russia and win going over the last hill.
Norway were way back on the first leg with Skofterud finishing back in about 7th, but they worked their way back on the 2nd leg to be up there with Germany with Russia a bit off the front. Finland dropped out of contention but Italy was still up there. Sachenbacher blew up at the end of the 3rd leg to drop Germany back to 4th. On the last leg Tchepalova of Russia started with a small gap ahead of Bjorgen of Norway and Follis of Italy. Bjorgen closed the gap and sat on Tchepalova for most of the race, Follis about 8-10 seconds back and Kuenzel trying hard for Germany to move up into the medals. Half-way up the the last big climb Bjorgen put her foot down and that was the race won, she steamed over the top of the hill with enough of a gap to give Tchepalova no chance. Follis held on for third ahead of Kuenzel. To note the overtaking rule was in effect again, the USA were pulled out already during the 3rd leg. After the race Ukraine were disqualified for taking a short-cut - not a big one as it was for using the whole track instead of just the classic track for the classic leg and the skating track for the skate leg.
Women's Relay 1 57:15.7 NORWAY (Skofterud, Pedersen, Steira, Bjoergen) 2 + 7.6 RUSSIA (Kurkina, Baranova-Masolkina, Medvedeva-Abruzova, Tchepalova) 3 + 49.7 ITALY (Paruzzi, Confortola, Valbusa, Follis) 4 + 1:11.3 GERMANY (Boehler, Bauer, Sachenbacher, Kuenzel)
Men's 30km Pursuit - February 20The surprise early on in the men's pursuit was Martin Tauber from Austria going off the front of the pack and holding a 10-15 second lead for a couple of laps. He was brought back in by the pack but still managed to come into the change in 5th place (and ended up in 31st but he was up there for a long time). The first 4 skiers through the changeover in a pack were Botvinov from Austria, Sodergren, Estil and Bajcicak. They were soon joined on the freestyle leg by Vittoz, di Centa, and others including Dolidovitsch from Belarus and Skjeldal from Norway. Fredriksson from Sweden was up there in the classic but didn't make the jump to the front pack and instead spent most of the skate leading the second pack. Vittoz, di Centa, and Sodergren made a small break mid-way on the last lap, then Estil bridged the gap with another 4-5 skiers with him. Estil looked as if he could go past but was blocked off on the last hill and then Vittoz and di Centa made another small break as they went over the top. Vittoz held off di Centa in the straight to claim France's first ever gold medal at a World Championship. Sodergren was in third down the hill and over the last bridge into the stadium, but was outsprinted by Estil and Bajcicak. Estil looked to change lane in front of Bajcicak and Slovakia definitely had a case for a protest, but if they did protest it wasn't upheld.
Men 30km Pursuit 1 42:16.8 FRA Vicent Vittoz 2 42:32.5 ITA Giorgio di Centa 3 42:42.7 NOR Frode Estil 4 42:51.9 SVK Martin Bajcicak 5 42:55.1 SWE Anders Sodergren DNF AUS Ben Derrick - withdrawn after 18.75km DNF AUS Ben Sim - withdrawn after 4.5km 96 skiers in start
Women's 15km Pursuit - February 19Several pile-ups going over the first bridge out of the start caught up Neumannova from Czech and Smigun from Estonia as well as several other top contenders. The pace was hot from the start, driven by Bjoergen and Baranova-Masolkina. Tchepalova was never too far behind and Scott was also up in the mix. Around the end of the first skating lap Tchepalova took over the lead from Bjoergen and soon made a small break, with Scott and Paruzzi jostling for third position. Then Steira came storming through from 9th place and 23 seconds behind at the changover to catch Scott and Paruzzi and go straight through into a clear third place. No real changes in the final stages, Scott got away from Paruzzi to claim 4th place.
Women 15km Pursuit 1 42:16.8 RUS Julia Tchepalova 2 42:32.5 NOR Marit Bjoergen 3 42:42.7 NOR Kristin Steira 4 42:51.9 CAN Beckie Scott 5 42:55.1 ITA Gabriella Paruzzi 49 49:17.4 AUS Clare-Louise Brumley - 16.58% 71 skiers in start
Women's 10km Freestyle - February 17No special comments it has been along enough day already. Spectacularly close finish for 1st place. Bjorn Kristiansen from the Australian coaching team picked the quinella in the correct order.
Women 10km Freestyle 1 26:27.6 CZE Katerina Neumannova 2 26:28.8 RUS Julia Tchepalova 3 26:42.8 NOR Marit Bjorgen 4 26:46.2 EST Kristina Smigun 5 26:59.1 RUS Natalie Baranova-Masolkina 52 30:42.6 AUS Clare-Louise Brumley - 16.06% 75 skiers in start
Men's 15km Freestyle - February 17Bjorn tipped Hofstad to win but the Italians upset his applecart.
Men 15km Freestyle 1 34:49.7 ITA Pietro Piller Cottrer 2 35:00.9 ITA Fulvio Valbusa 3 35:03.9 NOR Tor Ruud Hofstad 4 35:06.6 NOR Lars Berger 5 35:08.3 CZE Lukas Bauer 80 39:34.7 AUS Ben Derrick - 13.64% 81 39:46.8 AUS Ben Sim - 14.22% 83 39:54.3 AUS Andrew Mock - 14.58% 101 41:54.4 AUS Paul Murray - 20.32% 122 skiers in start
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