On the ladies side we will have tomorrow 57 athletes at the start while the men's field consist of 67 racers. All the favourites for a classical sprint are at the start, also the sick athletes from Finland Aino Kaisa Saarinen and Virpi Kuitunen as well as the big favourite for the overall World Cup Petter Northug will be at the start. Also the little brother and Sprint Junior World Champion Thomas Northug will compete for the first time in the World Cup.
Race Director Jürg Capol's remark
After one year break we are back in Drammen for the World Cup. The sprint here will take place for the seventh time and I'm excited to see a demanding classical sprint race in front of a more then 30.000 spectators. It will be interesting to see if on the men's side, a Swede or a Russian can break the dominance the Norwegian victories here in Drammen. Favourites for this race are the current Sprint World Cup leader Emil Joensson, John Kristian Dahl, Ola Vigen Hattestad and Olympic Champion Nikolay Kriukov. The race tomorrow will be also important for the sprint World Cup, where still 250 points will be awarded, as it is still quite close between Joensson, Dahl and Hattestad.
On the ladies side, a tight battle between the local favourite Marit Bjoergen and overall World Cup leader Justyna Kowalczyk is expected, but we have also to see how the shape of Hanna Falk, Anna Olsson and Aino Kaisa Saarinen is.
Contributed Sandra Spitz
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