Kikkan Randall eliminated from medal contention in semis

February 17, 2010

by Andrew Hinkelman
Wednesday, February 17, 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska's best hope for an individual medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics met an early exit Wednesday.

Anchorage Nordic skier Kikkan Randall was eliminated from medal contention in the semifinals of the women's sprint Wednesday afternoon. Still, the eighth-place finish was the best performance of Randall's career in the classic sprint and the best Olympic finish ever by an American woman in Nordic skiing.

Randall finished fourth in the first of two semifinal heats, 4.7 seconds out of contention. The six fastest skiers advanced to the medal round.

Marit Bjoergen of Norway won gold. Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk took silver and Petra Majdic of Sweden -- who suffered a nasty fall before qualifying even began -- claimed bronze.

In the quarterfinals, Randall had to wait it out to earn a "lucky loser" spot in the semis.

The top two in each heat move on automatically and Randall finished third, 0.4 seconds out of second, but she got one of two "lucky loser" slots -- the two fastest non-automatic qualifiers from the quarterfinals move on to the semis.

In qualifying, Randall posted the 10th fastest time. Anchorage's Holly Brooks was 38th, missing out on a spot in the quarterfinals by less than 2 seconds. The top 30 advanced.

NBC will show the sprint races Wednesday afternoon from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on NBC.

The next women's cross-country event is the 15-kilometer pursuit on Friday.

Anchorage's James Southam did not participate in the men's sprint.

Contact Andrew Hinkelman at ahinkelman@ktuu.com. Read Channel 2's blog from British Columbia and follow @KTUUSports on Twitter.

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