Published: Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:00 AM MDT
Updated: Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:45 PM MDT
Norwegian rockets Sigrid Aas and Petter Eliassen were victorious in Tuesday evening's Tour of the Golden Heart Spring Series opener.
CXC coach Brian Fish takes a turn at racing.
Conditions were firm, fast, and not terribly cold. Interval-start 5k and 10k skate races were on the agenda, giving local juniors a chance to race with a number of top elite seniors. The courses at Birch Hill are very well-designed, featuring a lot of climbs and corners which are all very skiable. With no excessively steep, long v1 climbs on the course, the biggest challenge was maintaining high speed on some of the medium-gradual uphills, where one could either v2 strongly or fall into a tired v1 with not enough glide and lose a lot of time.
The women's 5Km free technique interval start race was a four-way battle between Aas, runner-up Anna Coulter of the UAF team, third place finisher Laura Valaas of Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center, and Team Rossignol's Martina Stursova. Small time gaps opened up between these skiers early in the race, and gradually expanded, although the race was reasonably tight all the way to the end.
Aas' time was 14:40.6, 8.4 seconds ahead of Coulter, who was, in turn, 11.4 seconds ahead of Valaas. Stursova missed a position on the podium by 13 seconds. UAF Assistant Ski Coach Ingrid Olsen rounded out the top five, 1:16 back.
Heather Edic, Marisa Rorabaugh and Kate Bennett were the three top juniors, in 7th-8th-9th.
The racing started at 6:00PM under sunny skies with comfortable temperatures. Sixteen women were entered in the race, but a number of scratches, including former Fairbanks skiers Kate (Pearson) Arduser and Becca Rorabaugh, brought the field down to 11. However it was a very strong field, and the junior skiers who competed in the race were able to measure themselves against the very best.
The men's race began at 7:00PM, and a gradually increasing breeze and slowly falling temperatures made conditions seem a little colder for the many spectators who had grown accustomed to the conditions during the women's race.
The fastest skiers went out toward the front of the field of 37. Leif Zimmerman of the USST and Bridger Ski Foundation (Bozemen, MT), who was the 10Km classic champion on the Birch Hill trails at the 2003 Junior Olympics, was the first skier out of the gate, wearing bib number 20, and was the early leader.
Starting two-and-a-half minutes behind Zimmerman was 2008 NCAA Champion Marius Korthauer of the Alaska Nanooks, now skiing for Rossignol. Korthauer gained a few seconds on Zimmerman early, Petter Eliassen, starting 30 seconds behind Korthauer, took over the lead at most of the early timing positions.
These three skiers spend most of the race in that order, but within 15-20 seconds of one another. Eliassen had about 10 seconds on Korthauer with two to three kilometers to go. Korthauer was able to narrow that gap to four seconds by the finish, but could get no closer. The final top three were Eliassen, Korthauer (+4.2 seconds) and Zimmerman (+13.2 seconds). APUNSC coach Frode Lillefjell was fourth (+1:17) and UAF skier Vahur Teppan was fifth (+1:22).
Among juniors, Michael Mattson of APU was first (6th overall). David Norris of FAST was second junior (10th overall) and Ray Sabo of UAF was third junior in 12th overall.
Coverage from the Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Sources: Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks, Ian Case
Originaly from Source
[Source: Alinghi] Following the meeting that was held at the Socit Nautique de Genve in Switzerland with representatives from both SNG and Golden Gate Yacht Club, Lucien Masmejan, lead counsel for the defending yacht club, expresses:
Despite having had great hopes for todays meeting with GGYC, we were very disappointed with the outcome. GGYC adopted the same approach that it took last year coming to the meeting with a fixed position rather than to discuss and find a resolution in accordance with Justice Cahns Order. Read the rest of this entry »
[Source: BMW Oracle] Valencia, Spain, 26 March 2008: The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) met with the defender in Geneva today to try and resolve the date for the next Americas Cup Deed of Gift Challenge.
Tom Ehman, the clubs spokesman, who attended the meeting with Russell Coutts, the CEO of BMW ORACLE Racing, said there had been a cordial exchange of views. GGYC did not wish to disclose details of the discussion at this stage, but remains focused on moving the issue forward quickly.
We remain strongly of the view that the rules on the timing of the event are quite clear. The sooner we race the Deed of Gift match the sooner we can all get the Americas Cup back on track, he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Telkom has launched an advertising campaign (http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Broadband/3268.html) taking the Mickey out of iBurst’s (http://www.iburst.co.za/default.aspx?link=packages_packages) R49 offering. iBurst’s cheapest offering of…
Originaly from Source
- Fred Meyer’s letter to Marcus Young, dated 19 March 2008
19 March 2008
Commodore Marcus Young
Golden Gate Yacht Club
#1 Yacht Road
San Francisco, California 94123 Read the rest of this entry »
[Source: French Spirit] The prestigious Yacht Club de France welcomed Team French Spirit for the first presentation of its core team and programme at the Clubs headquarter in Paris. Marc Pajot, President and team manager, was pleased to present its long term programme and to introduce two key members of its team : Philippe Presti and Bertrand Pac.
The future of the Cup is now appearing more clearly. While the 33rd Americas Cup will be a duel between Alinghi and BMW Oracle Challenge, Team French Spirit is now preparing the basics of its challenge for the 34th Cup, which should take place in Valencia in 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
- Russell Coutts’ letter to Brad Butterworth, dated 20 March 2008
20 March, 2008
Mr. Brad Butterworth
Vice President/Skipper
SNG/Team Alinghi
Base 11
Port Americas Cup Read the rest of this entry »
- Fred Meyer’s letter to Russell Coutts, dated 21 March 2008
21 March 2008
Golden Gate Yacht Club
Mr.Russell Coutts
c/o Commodore Marcus Young
c/o Mr.Thomas Ehman, Jr. Read the rest of this entry »
- Russell Coutts’ reply letter to Fred Meyer, dated 23 March 2008
March 23, 2008
Mr Fred Meyer
Vice Commodore
Head of America’s Cup Committee
Socit Nautique de Genve Read the rest of this entry »
[Source: Alinghi] The Alinghi sailing team travelled to Lorient in France on Tuesday to begin multi-hull training with well-known French sailor Alain Gautier on the ORMA 60, Foncia, in view of a Deed of Gift match against BMW Oracle Racing.
“Alinghi is very pleased to have reached an agreement with Alain Gautier. He is a hugely experienced multi-hull sailor and as we are largely focusing on designing and racing a multi-hull for a Deed of Gift Match against BMW Oracle, Alain’s expertise and experience will be hugely valuable to the team,” Grant Simmer, Alinghi design team coordinator, said, adding: Most of us are keel yacht sailors and have limited experience on multi-hulls, particularly large multi-hulls, so this is an important step in our learning process, to understand and to race a multi-hull yacht.” Read the rest of this entry »