Korosteleva, Joensson win Tour day four; Newell sixth

The FIS Tour de Ski continued today (Jan. 4) with men’s and women’s sprint races in Prague, Czech Republic. Russia’s Natalia Korosteleva and Sweden’s Emil Joensson claimed the victories in races that took place through the streets of the Czech capital as thousands watched.

Marcus Heller joined his teammate on the podium in second. Norway’s Simen Oestensen took third.

Joensson and Heller now stand one, two in the overall tour standings.

American Andrew Newell, who has been climbing his way up the tour sprint rankings (eighth yesterday) finished sixth today.

“I made it to the final, which is always the goal, but unfortunately I ran out of gas by the end,” said Newell who now stands third in the World Cup sprint standings . “I didn’t make any tactical errors, I was just tired, which is frustrating.”

Korosteleva dominated the women’s race ahead of Norway’s Celine Brun-Lie in second and Slovakia’s Alena Prochazkova in third.

Finn Aino Kaisa Saarinen now leads the overall women’s tour.

The Tour de Ski is an eight-stage event that crosses three countries over ten days. The overall winner gets 400 World Cup points and 150,000 Swiss francs (147,000 dollars). Competition continues Wednesday in Cortina, Italy with a men’s and women’s distance  races.

“It was cool. It was a neat experience to be racing so many days in a row, which is something that we don’t normally do. We’re always used to racing when we’re 100 percent rested. You can’t do that here on the tour,” said Newell who will not continue on the tour. “It was fun and I’m hoping to be back next year, hopefully as a better distance skier and able to place higher in the overall.”

Men’s Results

Women’s Results