Anchorage Daily News

Kikkan Randall's sensational World Cup season continued Saturday with a top-10 finish in the 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint in Canmore, Alberta.

Randall finished eighth, her fourth career top 10 in World Cup competition.

The Anchorage skier was fifth after the qualifying round, then won her quarterfinal heat. She didn't fare as well in the semifinals and was relegated to the B final -- only the top six from the semis advance to the A final.

"Kikkan looked super strong, but this is sprint racing and a lot of stuff goes on out there," U.S. Ski Team coach Pete Vordenberg said in a press release.

In the B final, Randall led the first part of the race, according to fasterskier.com, and was in position to win coming down the final 300 meters but couldn't overtake winner Petra Madjic of Slovenia.

Randall did defeat reigning world sprint champion and current points leader Astrid Jacobsen of Norway, who finished fourth in the B final and 10th overall.

Canada's Chandra Crawford was the overall winner.

Laura Valaas and Kate Arduser, teammates of Randall's at Alaska Pacific University, failed to get out of the qualifying round. Valaas was 44th, Arduser 55th.

In the men's race, Anders Haugen finished 57th and APU teammate Lars Flora was 58th, failing to move beyond the qualifying round. Likewise for UAF's Vahur Teppan, who was 38th.

"We didn't reach our goal, which was to have someone on the podium here in Canmore," Vordenberg said. "We had everything going for us here. We had great skis, a good living situation, good health, a kind of home-field advantage -- and we couldn't get that podium."

The next World Cup event is Feb. 9-10 in Otepaeae, Estonia.

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