Some Winter Sports this weekend!

Cross Country – freestyle (Gaellivare, Sweden). In the Women’s 10Km, which I missed, race winner was Marit Björgen (Nor) with her compatriot Therese Johaug second – good to see Kikkan Randall (USA) taking the final place on the podium (best by an American woman?), but seemed odd to see Justyna Kowalczyk down in 27th? More details on http://www.fiscrosscountry.com/news/bjoergen-starts-the-season-top,3408.html

Interesting to see Martin Fourcade (Fra) taking part in the Men’s 15Km freestyle cross country today – presumably that will rule him out of the French mixed relay team in the biathlon tomorrow at Östersund? Initially Martin looked very competitive, but seemed to fade later (perhaps he needs the regular breaks on the range?); last to start was the favourite, Dario Cologna (Swi) but with the weather closing in and the snow falling again, could he live up to his reputation; maybe it depends on what his focus is this year – World Cup or Tour de Ski? In the event, he couldn’t manage it, for whatever reason, finishing 19th. Winner was a very impressive Martin Johnsrud Sundby (Nor) from Alexej Poltoranin (Kaz) and “Lokalmatador” Marcus Hellner (Swe). Delighted to see Andrew Musgrave (GBR) getting some points today – think he was 26th or 27th, ahead of some impressive names including Canadians Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey (and Martin Fourcade too!) – great start to his season.

Women’s GS Run 1 – Aspen: Warm conditions and lots of artificial snow! Great run from Tina Maze (Slo), the second woman down the run today; bit disappointing from Lindsey Vonn, although a trip to hospital (food poisoning?) very recently can’t have helped her legendary strength and fitness. Even so, fairly respectable compared to some of the later runners! Nasty fall from Maria Höfl-Riesch; ski prep a bit too aggressive? Hopefully she’s OK but her left elbow looked a bit sore – not what you want on your birthday. Tina Weirather, Manuela Mölgg, Simona Hösl and Marion Bertrand also ski out – possibly still finding out the limits of the new skis, which apparently make it trickier to recover from epics; not sure I’m convinced they are a good idea, but of course I’m not in the FIS elite. Couple near misses too, but as coverage shifts to Lake Louise in Canada for the Men’s Downhill, at this stage of run 1 it’s Maze from Fenninger, Zettel, Curtoni, Rebensburg and Görgl, with Vonn 10th.

Over to Canada, and Max Franz from Austria, one of their “young guns” has set a cracking pace as 3rd man down. The German “ticker” said he pulverised the time of the previous skiers, and as time went on it looked like he’d pulverised a few followers too! Eric Guay (Can) pushed him hard, taking 2nd place but was dropped down to 3rd by Klaus Kröll (Aut) who was only 0.02 off Franz’s time – Austria going well at this stage. However the man to beat in practice was Aksel Lund Svindal (Nor), and he did it again in the race – one mistake but still into the lead by over half a second. As we move back south of the border, to run 2 of the Women’s GS, it’s Svindal from Franz, Kröll, Stechert (Ger), Guay and Fayed (Fra). Big crash for Mattia Casse (Ita), but no news at present apart from the fact that the helicopter is taking him off the piste; long break while that happens, with 28 skiers to go, but meanwhile …

Aspen 2: Looks like a tricky one; tight gates, sun and shade - from the first 6 skiers we have two near falls and a DQ. With 15 of the top 30 down, Taina Barioz (Fra) is holding on to her early lead (and in Lake Louise Marco Sullivan [USA], from start number 42, has tied with Kröll in 3rd place – brilliant!). Eventually Tessa Worley (Fra) takes over the lead, but she lost just over a second of her advantage from run 1! All credit to Lindsey Vonn for even competing given her time in hospital – apparently losing 5 kilos in the process; understandably she has withdrawn from tomorrow’s slalom – down safely though. Next is Lara Gut (Swi); great run and into the lead, which she holds until Viktoria Rebensburg (Ger) takes it away. Now it’s getting exciting; Curtoni could probably have taken the lead, but has a epic low down and so goes into 3rd – Kathrin Zettel (Aut) is better all the way and takes over the top of the podium; Fenninger falls and now it’s Maze. She starts with 1.06 advantage and is building at the intermediate – second win in a row! So – women’s GS Maze, Zettel & Rebensbug; men’s downhill Svindal, Franz and Kröll/Sullivan.

Over to Lake Louise again, this time for the Men’s Super G. Early leader was Ted Ligety (USA), with what seemed an impressive time; he held it until Joachim Puchner (Aut) came down – great start and the green light at Int 1, just red at Int 2 and seemed to have lost it at Int 3 – much to my amazement (and others!) he went green again just before the finish to take over the top place by only 0.01 seconds. Talking about amazing turn arounds – Adrien Theaux (Fra) was nicely into the red but somehow found more speed on the final section to take over the lead by 0.05 – all for nothing though as yesterday’s downhill winner Aksel Lund Svindal went 0.85 faster! And … that was pretty much where it stayed – Svindal, Theaux, Puchner and Ligety!

Quick update on the cross country, where Sunday saw the relay events. In the Women’s 4 x 5 Km event Norway 1 topped the podium from Sweden 1 and USA; in the Men’s 4 x 7.5 Km event the result was strangely similar - Norway 1 from Sweden 1 but this time Russia in 3rd!

Over to Östersund, for the first biathlon event of the new season (yahoo!!) – the mixed relay; 2 x 6 Km for the women followed by 2 x 7.5 Km for the men. What a surprise – on Eurosport we joined the event after the start due to ski jumping over-running – no change from last year! At least we joined just before shooting 1, and the first surprise – Tora Berger (Nor) hasn’t retired after all! She clears all 5 in record time, although out of the range it’s Olga Zaitseva (Rus) who takes the lead, from France (Brunet), Norway and Germany (Tina Bachman). Into the 2nd shoot – 1 miss Norway, 2 from Russia, 1 from France, but Poland clear – after a few spare rounds are expended Berger leads from Brunet, Palka (Pol), Zaitseva and Bachmann. Heading now for the first exchange, and Berger hands over to Solemdal about 10 seconds clear of France (Habert) and Russia (Vilukhina), then Poland (Gwizdon) another 10 seconds back with Ukraine (Pidhrushna) just ahead of Germany (Andrea Henkel). Looming up is Darya Domracheva (Blr), looking even faster this year – this should be interesting! Great shooting from France and Poland, so Habert, Vilukhina and Gwizdon lead out of S3, with Domracheva now 4th. Henkel keeps Germany’s performance on the range error free, but her ski speed seems to be letting her down today. Into S4 with the leading 3 very close; quite error strewn this time, but Russia out first from France and Belarus; Poland have a bad time and head for the penalty loop. Looks like Vilukhina is nicely away, but Darya is leading the chasing group – super performance from her.

Now for the men – Russia (Volkov) are away about 20 seconds clear from France, Belarus, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Norway and Germany (despite their good shooting) – maybe the French will regret not including the Fourcade brothers?? Machine made snow today, so perhaps a little slower than normal as we head to S5, with Volkov easing away and Germany (Lesser) up to 2nd but it’s very close in the chasing pack. Surprisingly the Russian coach looks very unimpressed, wonder what he looks like when they do badly!! Russia out first again, Lesser clear as are France (Beatrix); Ukraine having some problems, so Slesingr (Cze) 4th and Norway 5th. Quite close again coming in to S6, with the top 3 bunched and the immediate chasing group of 2 only 10 seconds or so back. Germany drop 3, so do France and Norway; Volkov out first but France and Germany get worse and end up on the penalty loop, so Slesingr up to 2nd ahead of Norway – schade. As we head to the final exchange Rus lead Cze and Nor; Ustyugov takes the final leg but Norway have Emil Hegle Svendsen!! The Ukraine athlete takes the wrong turn and loses 4 positions – must be early season! So Rus, Cze, Nor, Ger, Fra and Ukr away as the top 6. At the first split time Ustyugov is 15 seconds up on Moravec (Cze) – no real change there but EHS is closing fast on both of them. Into S7; Ustyugov is clear as the chasers settle but Svendsen is also clear and fast, out ahead of Moravec – Boeuf (Fra) up to 4th ahead of Schempp (Ger), but both of them with a lot to recover. Much better from Russia today after a relatively poor showing at last year’s worlds, but with EHS on their tails nothing can be taken for granted. Final shoot – brilliant shooting from Ustyugov, but EHS needs 2 spares leaving him 30 seconds or so back, Moravec out 3rd, but Germany out shoot France to go 4th at this stage. Seems EHS has realised that even he can’t catch the Russian – it’s Russia first (only 6 misses), then Norway (10 misses) and the Czech Republic (8); 4th Germany (4) then France (8) and Slovenia (11) just hold off Italy (9) for 6th place. Hope my spell checker enjoyed that!