Cross Country: Newell earns first World Cup podium in two years

American cross country skier Andy Newell secured his first World Cup podium in two years today (March 11) in a classic 1 km sprint race in Drammen, Norway. The Shaftsbury, VT native took third behind World Cup sprint leader Emil Joensson of Sweden in first place and Vancouver Games three-time medalist Petter Northug of Norway in second.

Newell’s last World Cup podium came in 2008 when he finished second in Lahti, Finland. His only other top-three World Cup finish came two years before that with a third-place results at Chanchung, China in 2006.

"To have that kind of energy and get up there on the podium for the first time ever in a classic race was pretty sweet," said the 26-year-old, two-time Olympian. "I'm really psyched. It's been way too long. It's taken me two years, so this feels good."  

After qualifying 11th, Newell pushed his way through each of his heats to make the six-man final.

"It's a really scrappy race and the snow is always kind of soft. There's not really any other race like it," Newell said. "It's super scrappy on some of the corners. I was taking some tight lines. In the quarterfinal I got tangled up with a guy in the downhill and ended up cruising down it on one ski. I was lucky enough to not crash in there."

  Newell, who now stands fourth in the World Cup overall sprint rankings, was disappointed in his performance at the Vancouver Games where his best result was a ninth-place finish in the team sprint.

"I was really bummed to have not been able to do this during the Olympics, so I was kind of out for revenge today," he said. "I was disappointed with the sprint at the Olympics because I had been feeling great all of February. My fitness was really good and to crash out was pretty frustrating. I was disappointed and I'm sure the rest of the ski fans in the U.S. were disappointed, so it was good to show people that we have the potential to be on the podium."  

The Norwegian fans were out in droves for the exciting races, a factor Newell said fueled his drive,

“It's such a cool course because there's 70,000 people out there or something like that," said Newell.

The win marked Joensson’s third World Cup victory of the season.

Today’s women’s race was dominated by local hero Marti Bjoergen, who took her eight win of the season (including three gold medals at the Vancouver Games) ahead of Finns Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Pirjo Muranen in second and third, respectively.

Kikkan Randall was the lone American woman in the race. She finished 34th.

The cross country World Cup Tour now moves to Oslo, Norway for the Holmenkollen Ski Festival with a men's 50K and women's 30K mass start races on Saturday.

Image by Gepa

Men’s results

1	1	3500259	JOENSSON Emil	1985	SWE
2	2	3420239	NORTHUG Petter jr.	1986	NOR
3	11	3530005	NEWELL Andrew	1983	USA
4	3	3420365	BRANDSDAL Eirik	1986	NOR
5	7	1276617	ONDA Yuichi	1980	JPN
6	5	3180146	LASSILA Kalle	1985	FIN
7	4	3480739	PANZHINSKIY Alexander	1989	RUS
8	24	3180227	COLLIANDER Niklas	1985	FIN
9	9	1319200	LARSSON Mats	1980	SWE
10	17	3420077	HATTESTAD Ola Vigen	1982	NOR
11	8	3420036	ROENNING Eldar	1982	NOR
12	25	3420089	PETTERSEN Oeystein	1983	NOR
13	16	3420131	KJOELSTAD Johan	1983	NOR
14	19	3420199	OESTENSEN Simen	1984	NOR
15	20	3500407	MODIN Jesper	1988	SWE
16	23	3420107	THUN Stein Vidar	1981	NOR
17	6	3480280	MORILOV Nikolay	1986	RUS
18	13	3180228	PAAKKONEN Lasse	1986	FIN
19	29	1223558	FRASNELLI Loris	1979	ITA
20	30	1223267	PASINI Renato	1977	ITA
21	14	3480322	PARFENOV Andrey	1987	RUS
22	21	3420299	LYKKJA Hans Petter	1984	NOR
23	22	3420573	BAKKEN Timo Andre	1989	NOR
24	26	3390033	EINASTE Kein	1985	EST
25	28	1298054	PASINI Fabio	1980	ITA
26	10	3180114	STRANDVALL Matias	1985	FIN
27	12	3480436	KRIUKOV Nikita	1985	RUS
28	15	3420519	CLAUSEN Kent-Ove	1985	NOR
29	18	3420012	NAESS Boerre	1982	NOR
30	27	3420798	NORTHUG Tomas	1990	NOR
31	31	3480021	PETUKHOV Alexey	1983	RUS
32	32	1221327	TEICHMANN Axel	1979	GER
33	33	3480287	DEVJATIAROV Mickail Jun.	1985	RUS
34	34	3390003	KUMMEL Peeter	1982	EST
35	35	3420463	STEEN Andreas Myran	1988	NOR
36	36	1230930	SVARTEDAL Jens Arne	1976	NOR
37	37	1310470	KRECZMER Maciej	1981	POL
38	38	3420002	DAHL John Kristian	1981	NOR
39	39	3500170	BRYNTESSON Robin	1985	SWE
40	40	3500330	PETERSON Teodor	1988	SWE
41	41	3390051	TEPPAN Vahur	1985	EST
42	42	3420376	GLOEERSEN Anders	1986	NOR
43	43	3390008	SAAREPUU Anti	1983	EST
44	44	3200229	TSCHARNKE Tim	1989	GER
45	45	1059822	HJELMESET Odd-Bjoern	1971	NOR
46	46	3420909	GOLBERG Paal	1990	NOR
47	47	3500318	JOHANSSON Patrik	1987	SWE
48	48	3050137	EBNER Thomas	1986	AUT
49	49	3290326	PELLEGRINO Federico	1990	ITA
50	50	1362947	PERL Curdin	1984	SUI
51	51	3420487	ODSAETER Lars Vingli	1986	NOR
52	52	1344711	JAUHOJAERVI Sami	1981	FIN
53	53	3530120	HAMILTON Simeon	1987	USA
54	54	1321237	KUHN Stefan	1979	CAN
55	55	3100006	KERSHAW Devon	1982	CAN
56	56	3050025	HIRNER Manuel	1985	AUT
57	57	3390050	SIMONLATSER Timo	1986	EST
58	58	3180085	VAEAENAENEN Jesse	1984	FIN
59	59	3530232	HINCKLEY Mike	1986	USA
60	60	3510207	KINDSCHI Joeri	1986	SUI
61	61	3200014	WENZL Josef	1984	GER
62	62	1268566	EIGENMANN Christoph	1979	SUI
63	63	3050088	BADER Markus	1988	AUT
64	64	3190070	MIRANDA Cyril	1985	FRA
65	65	3530177	GREGG Brian	1984	USA
66	66	3360000	PETERS Kari	1985	LUX
Did not start
	1001	3100034	NISHIKAWA Graham	1983	CAN

Women’s results  

1	6	1303777	BJOERGEN Marit	1980	NOR
2	1	1255665	SAARINEN Aino- Kaisa	1979	FIN
3	3	1255471	MURANEN Pirjo	1981	FIN
4	10	3505260	PAJALA Magdalena	1988	SWE
5	23	3425157	BJELLAANES Karianne	1986	NOR
6	2	3435001	KOWALCZYK Justyna	1983	POL
7	21	1237817	OLSSON Anna	1976	SWE
8	4	1166037	KUITUNEN Virpi	1976	FIN
9	18	3505090	INGEMARSDOTTER Ida	1985	SWE
10	24	3425365	FALLA Maiken Caspersen	1990	NOR
11	12	3425349	KRISTOFFERSEN Marthe	1989	NOR
12	26	1373617	FESSEL Nicole	1983	GER
13	7	3185137	KYLLOENEN Anne	1987	FIN
14	16	3565002	FABJAN Vesna	1985	SLO
15	29	3485032	KOROSTELEVA Natalia	1981	RUS
16	9	1250524	GENUIN Magda	1979	ITA
17	13	3565005	VISNAR Katja	1984	SLO
18	14	3185005	PERAELAE Kirsi	1982	FIN
19	20	3425410	OESTBERG Ingvild Flugstad	1990	NOR
20	25	1283116	ANDERSSON Lina	1981	SWE
21	8	3425177	GJEITNES Kari Vikhagen	1985	NOR
22	11	3185168	NISKANEN Kerttu	1988	FIN
23	15	3505405	FALK Hanna	1989	SWE
24	17	1305426	SKOFTERUD Vibeke W	1980	NOR
25	22	3195056	CUINET Aurore	1985	FRA
26	5	1169432	NATSUMI Madoka	1978	JPN
27	19	3485461	TURYSHEVA Elena	1986	RUS
28	27	3485340	CHUIKOVA Ekaterina	1986	RUS
29	28	3485510	MEDVEDEVA Polina	1989	RUS
30	30	1247226	ZELLER Katrin	1979	GER
31	31	1274580	ISHIDA Masako	1980	JPN
32	32	1293107	BOEHLER Stefanie	1981	GER
33	33	3395048	OJASTE Triin	1990	EST
34	34	1365857	RANDALL Kikkan	1982	USA
35	35	3425275	BRUN-LIE Celine	1988	NOR
36	36	3425703	SLIND Kari Oeyre	1991	NOR
37	37	1304165	GJOEMLE BERG Ella	1979	NOR
38	38	3425114	TYLDUM Elise Aunet	1985	NOR
39	39	3105040	GAIAZOVA Daria	1983	CAN
40	40	3205225	ANGER Lucia	1991	GER
41	41	3505225	SVENSSON Eva	1987	SWE
42	42	3425183	JACOBSEN Astrid Uhrenholdt	1987	NOR
43	43	3425219	BOE Kjersti	1987	NOR
44	44	3485371	KUZIUKOVA Olga	1985	RUS
45	45	3485283	NIKOLAEVA Svetlana	1987	RUS
46	46	3395038	UDRAS Kaija	1986	EST
47	47	3515038	TRACHSEL Doris	1984	SUI
48	48	3515055	GRUBER Bettina	1985	SUI
49	49	3425025	TYLDUM Ingri Aunet	1983	NOR
50	50	3425499	WENG Heidi	1991	NOR
51	51	3195003	WEIBEL Caroline	1983	FRA
52	52	3425015	BRAATHEN Solfrid	1982	NOR
53	53	3295167	VUERICH Gaia	1991	ITA
54	54	3425115	SOLLI Guro Stroem	1983	NOR
55	55	3395010	PORMEISTER Piret	1985	EST
Did not start
	1002	1222200	LONGA Marianna	1979	ITA
	1001	1138877	FOLLIS Arianna	1977	ITA

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Cross Country: Newell earns first World Cup podium in two years