North Americans Up With the Best In World Cup Sprint Qualification -Tuesday 07 March 2006 Today's freestyle sprint race in Borlange, Sweden is underway, with several strong performances from North American skiers in the prelim which bode well for the subsequent elimination heats that will determine the actual final results.
Canadian youngsters Devon Kershaw and Chandra Crawford (recent Olympic Gold Medalist) posted the fourth fastest and second fastest prelim times in the men's and women's heats respectively. Kershaw finished barely more than 1 second behind the fastest men's qualifier Vassili Rotchev of Russia, with two Norwegians squeeking in ahead in second and third, while Crawford was only bettered by current overall World Cup leader Marit Bjoergen of Norway.
Also placing in the top 30 and advancing to the heats are Canadians Sara Renner (10th fastest prelim time) and Beckie Scott (18th). For the US, Kikkan Randall posted a time good enough for 14th and will be duking it out with the best as she did in the Olympics where she managed 9th overall. Andrew Newell is the lone US male representative to advance, qualifying in 12th between Tor Arne Hetland and France's Roddy Daragon who made the Olympic final. US skiers Torin Koos and Chris Cook were both less than 1 second from qualifying.
