Scott Elliot wrote:
"Terje Henriksen" wrote in message
...
cpella wrote:
Anybody who was at the Sovereign Lake world cup and watched Chandra
race wasn't totally surprised by her progress throught the heats
this morning. The only reason she didn't make the finals at Vernon
was because she got into an altercation with Claudia Kuenzel going
down the hill before the final bend and went off-balance. I had her
pegged for a bronze medal in Torino but she obviously had other
designs. Marit Bjoergen started off as primarily a sprinter and
built endurance on top of that base.

No, they never start up as sprinters, they start as normal
cross-country skiers. I think she first succeeded as a sprinter and
after a few years of hard training she also succeeded in normal
races.

I believe that Chandra started out as a biathlete, but has had more
success as a cross country skier. This is only her second year on
the Canadian team, so it will be interesting to see what her long
term potential is with some international level coaching.

The World Cup at Sovereign was a good experience for Chandra. She
made the semi-final which is two heats with five in each. The first
two in each heat advance to the A final and the third and forth place
finishers to the B final. The fifth place finishers place 9th and
10th overall, base on the qualifying time. Since Chandra's
qualifying time was slower than the other fifth place finisher she
was ranked 10th for the race.
In the semi-final heat she seemed to be in a fight between 2nd and
3rd place when they rounded a fast curve and started a short climb. From
where I was standing it looked like "the hand of God" reached
out and grabbed Chandra's left elbow, turning her around backwards. This
seems to have been a good experience for Chandra since she
learned to keep out of the crowds to avoid interference. There is
nothing like learning from your mistakes.

Isn't it better to learn from others mistakes?

--
Terje Henriksen
Kirkenes