Seefeld Mass Start 10/15 km F Preview

PREVIEW Ladies 10KM FREE TECHNIQUE – Sunday 28 Jan 2018

·  Heidi Weng (NOR) has reached the podium in seven of her last eight distance World Cup appearances, with an 11th-place finish in the 10km free in Oberstdorf (Tour de Ski) on 4 January as the only exception.

·  Weng has reached the podium in nine of the 12 distance events this World Cup season, most of all women. Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (NOR) has recorded six top-three finishes.

·  Weng can win three distance races within a single World Cup season for the second time, after 2015/16.

·  Only Østberg (4) has won more distance World Cup races this season than Weng (2) and Kalla (2).

·  Athletes from Norway have won 16 of the last 18 World Cup events in the 10km free (excl. pursuits). In this run (2010-2018) only Kalla avoided Norwegian success, as she won in Toblach on 16 December 2017 and in Östersund on 15 February 2015.

·  Jessica Diggins (USA) is aiming for her second podium spot in a 10km free World Cup race (excl. pursuits), after her third-place finish in Nové Mesto na Morave on 23 January 2016.

·  A US woman has yet to win a 10km free in the World Cup.

PREVIEW Men 15KM FREE TECHNIQUE

·  The last seven 15km free events in the World Cup (excl. pursuits) have seen seven different winners.

·  Emil Iversen (NOR) won the last 15km free race in Oberstdorf (Tour de Ski) on 4 January and could become the first athlete since Sergey Ustiugov (RUS) in February-March 2016 to record back-to-back wins in this event.

·  Alexey Poltoranin (KAZ) won the 15km classic in Planica last week to claim his 10th World Cup victory in an distance race (incl. Tour stages).

·  Poltoranin (10) needs one more win to join Tobias Angerer (GER), Thomas Alsgaard (NOR) and Per Elofsson (SWE) in 10th place for most distance wins in World Cup history.

·  Poltoranin only recorded more distance World Cup victories in 2012/13 (3) than this season (2).

·  Poltoranin's 11 World Cup wins all came in the classic style. He has reached the World Cup podium in a freestyle event only once, as he recorded a second-place finish in the 15km free in Gällivare on 24 November 2012.

·  Only Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (NOR, 3) has won more distance World Cup races this season than Poltoranin (2).

·  Last World Cup season, Sergey Ustiugov (RUS) and Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) won the most distances events, with four wins each.

·  Sundby has won 22 distances races in World Cup history and needs one more win to join Northug (23) in fourth place on the all-time list.

·  Only Northug (47) and Bjørn Dæhlie (NOR, 46) have won more World Cup events (incl. Tour stages and overall Tour wins) than Sundby (43). Sundby has yet to claim his first World Cup podium spot in Austria.

·  Calle Halfvarsson (SWE), third in the 15km classic in Planica, is aiming for his first distance World Cup win since 3 December 2016, when he won the 10km free in Lillehammer (3-Days Tour).

·  Alex Harvey (CAN) is looking for his fifth distance victory in the World Cup. Harvey last won in Ulricehamn on 21 January 2017 (15km free).

·  Harvey can become the second male athlete from the Americas (North and South America) after Bill Koch (USA) to claim five victories in distance World Cup events.