the rybinsk 15 k free was quite interesting.
other than justyna's backward sliding setting new records, cologna's is very impressive. if he continues to beat the russians with such regularity on their own soil (i mean snow), they will put him on the eu banned-entry list

his personal race against ustiugov in the final kilometers was fun to watch. the sprinter wunderkind started 30 sec in front of cologna and was caught by dario perhaps after 12k. the youngster then stubbornly refused to let dario pass him accelerating each time the swiss tried...dario had to keep up b/c the runner up belov was only within 10 seconds, while they played, dario increased his gap to belov and the stubborn youngster collected so many seconds that he even passed legkov for the bronze by 8 after being behind 7 sec. (lego started way earlier)
the moral of the story i drew was that ustiugov clearly did not pace right and is so freakishly strong it is scary. i wonder if he could pass belov, the tds new discovery, if he was pacing right ? what else was interesting ? the norwegians sent the contingent out of which i recognized only sveen... a rare sight of their non-performance..that legkov, after being absent for a month is back with the bang.
except for a few norwegians and sweeds, most of the very best skaters were there (magnificat clara, harvey...). thus, the lego-man is likely going to improve all the way into falun. i must say,though, he does not look healthy - either too thin or still recovering from his colds...