Canada’s Harvey earns pursuit silver
Good meals, great work by wax techs key to finish, cross-country skier says
Canada’s Alex Harvey won the silver medal in the men’s 15-kilometre mass start pursuit Sunday at the second stop of the sevenrace Tour de Ski crosscountry series in Oberstdorf, Germany.
Harvey, from Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., finished in a time of 42 minutes 01.8 seconds, just 0.6 seconds behind winner Petter Northug of Norway.
“The key to the Tour is recovery. I ate really well yesterday and this morning. I woke up really confident and I just really liked the feeling as soon as I put the skis on today,” Harvey said. “The wax techs did a great job. The skis were fast and perfect for the conditions.”
Sweden’s Calle Halvarsson finished third, 0.8 seconds behind Northug.
In the women’s 10-kilometre pursuit, six-time Olympic champion Marit Bjoergen finished in 29:27.6 to lead a Norwegian sweep of the podium.
Bjoergen finished 56.2 seconds ahead of Heidi Weng and 56.8 ahead of Therese Johaug. CANADA BRONZE IN LUGE RELAY: Canada wrapped up a luge World Cup meet Sunday with a bronze medal in the relay race.
Calgary’s Alex Gough, who won the silver medal in Saturday’s women’s race, teamed with Sam Edney (Calgary) and the doubles team of Justin Snith (Calgary) and Tristan Walker (Cochrane, Alta.) to finish in two minutes, 46.394 seconds.
The Canadians looked poised to win the silver until a mistake at the bottom of the doubles run cost them some time.
Germany finished first in 2:44.493 while the United States was second at 2:45.895.
“It was good to have our whole group back racing again, and get on the podium though. I think as a group we feel we didn’t win the bronze, but lost the silver today,” Edney said.
It was the first World Cup podium for the Canadians, who were heavy favourites to win a medal in the event when the team relay made its debut at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. The Canucks finished in fourth place in Sochi.
Earlier, Olympic champion Felix Loch of Germany won his third men’s race of the year.
Loch, a four-time world champion, was fastest in both runs for a combined time of 1:39.716 seconds, beating compatriot Andi Langenhan by 0.755 seconds and American Chris Mazdzer by 0.809. Edney finished eighth. After a winless December, Natalie Geisenberger won the women’s competition on Saturday, when Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt also claimed the doubles win for Germany. AMERICAN SHIFFRIN WINS SLALOM: American skier Mikaela Shiffrin continued her recent resurgence in slalom by convincingly winning her second straight World Cup race, leaving her rivals in awe.