Harvey opens World Cup season with skate-ski silver in Finland
Olympic cross-country skier Alex Harvey has started the FIS World Cup season opening weekend with a second place finish in the 10km skate-ski competition at Kuusamo, Finland.
While it was the 16th World Cup medal for Harvey, Saturday at the Ruka ski resort marked the first time he found himself on a podium before Christmas.
Alex Harvey edges Dario Cologna of Switzerland in Kuusamo, Finland to win World Cup skate-ski silver on November 28, 2015.
The 27-year old two-time Olympian has been competing on the senior circuit since 2008. Last year Harvey became the first Canadian cross-country skier to win two individual medals at the same World Championships.
Harvey said his goal this season “is to win the Overall title” and already enjoying his best start to a season, that task will seem more possible than ever.
“I didn’t necessarily believe that I could do that in the past, but I do believe I have a shot at that title this year. I didn’t have a good result yesterday (when competition opened with sprint races) but I knew my fitness was good and I was confident heading into today.”
Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway – the reigning World Cup overall title-holder – took gold in a time of 21 minutes and 5.5 seconds on Saturday. Harvey (21:16.7) was about 11 seconds back of Sundby, edging Dario Cologna of Switzerland (21:17.1) by less than half a second.
Last week Harvey warmed-up for the opening World Cup race with another silver at a skate-ski race in Sweden.
