Alison Crocker of Massachusetts, member of the U.S. Teams in Ski-O and Foot-O, as well as Cambridge Sports Union, has finished in fourth place, near the top of the women's field, in the first Ski-O World Cup race of 2012 in Lake Tahoe, California. After a model event on Northstar-Lake Tahoe's cross-country ski trails yesterday, athletes took to the snow at Tahoe Donner Cross Country Ski area. She and Alexandra Jospe, also a Massachusetts resident, represent the female elite competition at the event; Adrian Owens and Nikolay Nachev are skiing for the men. Alex also had a good start of competition, placing 11th in the day's race. The men have tough competition on this world stage. (read more below)
Ali at the second map exchange (photo: Eddie Bergeron)
Ali, ranked 13th of the field before the start, worked her way up through the crowd of skiers in the mass-started race and skied well throughout, finishing just four minutes behind the winner, Swede Tove Alexandersson, whose time (unofficial) was 1:14:42. Josefine Engstrom of Sweden finished second in 1:16:04, and Polina Malchinkova of Russia third, in 1:16:45, with Ali a minute behind Polina and two minutes ahead of the fifth-placed competitor. Alex's time was 1:23:05.
More about the race:
Clip of the women's Long course map 3 showing the first two legs (click to see entire map)
