Dasha Gaiazova cracked the top 15 for the first time this season as Canada’s national cross country ski team slowly began to turn the corner at a world cup stop in Asiago, Italy.
The Banff athlete has become a classic sprint specialist in recent years and targeted the Asiago race as a personal goal. She qualified in 28th spot on a slushy track and found herself in a tough quarterfinal. She held on in third place, but couldn’t find room to make a move into the top two, which would have pushed her into the semis.
Her time was good enough for 14th and she’ll now decide if she wants to participate in the Tour de Ski beginning on Dec. 28 after celebrating her birthday on Christmas Eve. Chandra Crawford was 45th and Perianne Jones finished 54th; they did not move on into the heats.
Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland won the race, followed by Finland’s Anne Kylloenen and Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla.
Devon Kershaw, who turned 31 on Dec. 20, was the top Canadian on the men’s team. He just missed qualifying and finished 33rd on the day. The result is the best of the season thus far as he continues to search for his race shape. Alex Harvey qualified in 13th place, but was disqualified for using a skate ski technique on a corner in the classic ski race.
Len Valjas finished 70th and is still recovering from off-season knee surgery, as the plan for the big sprinter is to race back into shape. Jesse Cockney is still learning the world cup game and finished 77th .
Nikita Kriukov of Russia won the sprint for the first podium of his career. Alexey Poltoranin of Kazakhstan won silver and Gianluca Cologna, brother of cross-country ski superstar Dario Cologna, won the bronze.
Kershaw and Harvey followed Saturday’s performance with an 11th-place finish in the team sprint on Sunday (Dec. 22), while Gaiazova and Jones finished 16th. Cockney and Valjas were 24th.
