GRP Ski at Seefeld World Cup and Craftsbury SuperTour
Ben Lustgarten racing the World Cup in Seefeld, Austria over the weekend (Photo TokoUS/Nordic Focus)
Kaitlynn Miller winning the classic sprint at the Craftsbury SuperTour (Photo Kris Dobie)
Last Updated: 30.Jan.2018
The 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics are just over a week away, but the Green Racing Project skiers have plenty of races in the meantime to keep them busy. Over the weekend, three GRP skiers competed in Seefeld, Austria for the last World Cups before the Olympics. Back stateside, five GRP skiers and biathletes raced at home in the SuperTour in Craftsbury.
Seefeld World Cup
On the tails of an all-classic race weekend in Planica, this weekend was all about the freestyle races, with a freestyle sprint Saturday and 10/15k mass start on Sunday. In the women’s qualifier, Ida Sargent placed 37th, just over half a second from the top 30. However, previously in the day she fell during her warm-up and unknowingly broke a bone in her thumb, thus was racing with an injured hand. Caitlin Patterson placed 52nd in the qualifier. On the men’s side, Ben Lustgarten placed 76th.
The following day, both Patterson and Lustgarten improved on their results. Patterson placed 23rd in the 10k mass start, her second top 30 in top distance races on the World Cup this year. Lustgarten placed 55th in the men’s 15k. Results from the World Cup are available on FIS-ski.com. The World Cup will resume on March 3 in Lahti, Finland, following the Olympic Games, which run February 9-25. Stay tuned for reports from the Olympics!
Craftsbury SuperTour
Back at home, the skiers raced a classic sprint and 5/10k freestyle individual on a busy weekend that sandwiched the Craftsbury Marathon. In the classic sprint, four GRP skiers qualified for the heats. Kaitlynn Miller led the way in women’s qualification with a win, Liz Guiney was 4th, and Hallie Grossman, a GRP biathlete, was 24th. On the men’s side, Adam Martin qualified in 26th. In the heats, Miller took it all the way to a victory the A Final, winning her quarterfinal and semifinal along the way. Guiney placed 4th in her semifinal for 8th overall, and Grossman placed 6th in her quarterfinal for 28th overall. Martin placed 4th in his quarterfinal and moved up to 20th overall.
Two days later, the skiers tried out the new homologated 5k for 5/10k individual starts. In the women’s 5k, Miller placed 4th, Guiney was 5th, and Grossman was not far behind in 13th. On the men’s side, Adam Martin placed 13th, and biathlete Mike Gibson took 23rd. The skiers will compete this coming weekend in a combined NorAm/SuperTour in Gatineau, Quebec. Results from the Craftsbury SuperTour are available on CraftsburySuperTour.com.