Best Canadian cross-country skier of the day, Antoine Cyr came up against the eventual gold medalist in the free sprint on Saturday and was stopped in the quarter-finals at the World Cup in Minneapolis.
The Gatineau skier first signed on the 29the qualifying time at the start of the day. He then found himself in the same heat as the Norwegian Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo and the Frenchman Lucas Chanavat in the quarter-finals. Respectively first and third in the general sprint classification this season, they led the race and reached the semi-finals ahead of Cyr and the Norwegian Paal Golberg.
The Quebecer thus concluded on 19e rank in this event due to his time of 2 min 56.99 s.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo won the gold medal a little later, his sixth of the campaign. Italian Federico Pellegrino followed 27 hundredths of a second behind, while Norwegian Haavard Solaas Taugboel took third place (+1.21 seconds).
Olivier Léveillé, Léo Grandbois and Félix-Olivier Moreau finished 41e55e and 70e qualifications. On the women’s side, Katherine Stewart-Jones had the best Canadian result, placing 34ewhile Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt did not start.
10K freestyle events are scheduled for Sunday in Minneapolis.