Cross Country - Tour de Ski

Day 1 - Prologue events at Oberhof: First event was the women's, billed as 2.5 Km by the ZDF ticker but I think actually (looking at the results) extended a bit to 3.1 Km. This was a freestyle (skating) event which included a quite nasty, twisting downhill section which saw at least three falls during the race - speeds here up to about 50 Km/h on narrow skis! Aim in the TdS is to finish within 20% of the winners time or you don't go through to the next event.

Early on the French held the top 3 positions but it probably wouldn't last with the big names coming late in the start list, and it didn't! Hanna Brodin (Swe) was leading towards the end with the two main threats to that position still on the track; Justyna Kowalczyk (Pol) certainly doesn't have the prettiest skating technique, but it's very powerful - some discussion about how she would handle the downhill section, but she went through it well and fast to take the lead. The question now was whether Marit Björgen, definitely on form this year, could catch her. Unusually she looked shakier on the downhill than Justyna, and lost to her by just 0.4 seconds - arguably the margin of a poor turn on the downhill? So after the first event, it's Kowalczyk from Björgen (Nor) and Brodin - however with another 8 events in the next 10 days ...

The men's version was 4 Km, and here the margin for getting through to the next race is to be within 15% of the winners time. Still a nasty downhill section and speeds now of 65 Km/h +! There was actually a GB entry here; Andrew Musgrave who started second and whose split time at 1.7 Km remained the fastest for a good time! Once again the French did well early on, holding the top 2 places until displaced by the Russians Chernousov, Morilov and Vylegzhanin who filled the top three, in that order - Russians very impressive today! As in the women's race though the top seeds come later - Legkov (Rus) also went well as did Alex Harvey (Can), but Marcus Hellner (Swe) beat them both and took over the lead; not for long though as the wonderfully named Maurice Manificat (Fra) was even faster. However the favourites, Cologna (Swi) and Northug (Nor), were still on the loipe - Dario Cologna was the first man under 8 minutes and I thought he'd done it, but Petter Northug can really sprint and he took the win by 0.7 seocnds. So - today Northug from Cologna, Manificat, Hellner, Chernousov and Harvey. Andrew Musgrave finished 28th, just 20.8 seconds back in a field of 99. More at
www.fiscrosscountry.com

Day 2, at Oberhof, saw the 2 pursuit races starting with the Women's 10 Km, then the Men's 15 Km - both these races are classic style and the athletes set off at intervals determined by the finishing time in the prologue, plus any bonus seconds from the positions in that race; for example in the 10 Km Kowalczyk, who was 0.4 seconds ahead of Björgen in the prologue got 5 seconds more bonus for her first place than MB got for second, and so starts 5.4 seconds ahead - not a lot over 10 Km!

Women's 10 Km Pursuit (classic): A tough day for the waxing technicians with temperatures about 0 to minus 1, varying around the course. Even with any bonus seconds, it was a close start. It looked as though Marit B and Justyna K were using zero skis (no grip wax but a "rough patch" built in - sorry, very rough description), while others tried various waxing solutions - judging from the lack of grip some athletes had on the hills the technicians hadn't always got it right! Therese Johaug (Nor) made up a good number of places early with a terrific tempo, and the Finns also seemd to be doing well - near the end of loop 1 we had a group of 6 breaking away comprising Kowalczyk, Björgen, Saarinen (Fin), Johaug, Lahteenmaki (Fin) and Sarasoja (Fin). Things remained close with Therese Johaug near the front and trying to get away - she is very slight compared to some of the other athletes and not an out and out sprinter, but awesome on the hills! Try though she did, she was unable to break away completely and coming into the finish she was just clear of Kowalczyk, with Björgen in third. The Pole put in a massive sprint to the line which Johaug couldn't live with, and that was Justyna's second win in 2 days; Johaug second, MB third (did she have a slight set up problem with the skis?), Aino Kaisa Saarinen 4th, Lahteenmaki 5th and Kikkan Randall (USA) in a well deserved 6th. Improver of the day was arguably Ishida of Japan who started 41st and moved up to 10th at the finish.

Men's 15 Km Pursuit (Classic): Again, tricky for the technicians; Northug was (I think) on zero skis but the Russians seemed to be on wax and using huge amounts of muscle to get up the hills when the grip wasn't there - even then they did well; famous for very hard training! This was all very close - at the end of lap 2 there was only 20 seconds separating the top 60. With the course and the skis both slower than day 1 it was difficult to break clear - coming towards the end Axel Teichmann (Ger) was well up in a competitive group including Dario Cologna (Swi), Petter Northug (Nor) and Lukas Bauer (Cze); with Axel just in front Cologna fell which certainly affected the group immediately around him; Teichmann kept clear and took a well deserved win from Petter Northug (who danced neatly around the fallers), Cologna (who must have made a fantastic recovery form his fall) and Alexander Legkov (Rus).

Day 3 - sprints (Oberstdorf): I missed these classic sprints, but they are very important to the athletes as they carry relatively much higher bonus seconds - a good explanation of the TdS rules and bonus awards is on the fis cross country site - www.fiscrosscountry.com/news/explanation-bonus-seconds-and-tour-ski-rules,2762.html. In the men's event the final (6 places available) featured 4 Russians, plus Cologna (whose time in the semis got him in as a fastest loser) and Northug. In wet conditions Northug lost his footing and fell on the final hill and while Cologna stayed upright he couldn't match the Russians - Nikita Kriukov took the win from Petukhov, Morilov and Japarov with Cologna and Northug briunging up the rear - however Petter Northug remains as the overall leader after 3 events.

In the women's sprint, Justyna Kowalczyk again seemed unstoppable, even in the wet snow with temperatures around +2; she has credited her small (but obviously very proficient) waxing team after her wins - nice to hear as they often seem to get ignored except when they foul up! Marit Björgen took another second place, but Therese Johaug (2nd in the pursuit) isn't a sprinter and lost out in the quarter finals. Instead Astrid Jacobsen took third overall from Matveeva (Rus), Ingemarsdotter (Swe) and Aurore Jean (Fra)

Day 4 sees the Skiathlon - a mix of classic and skating with more bonus seconds for wins and intermediate sprints!

Day 4 – Men’s 10 + 10 Km “Skiathlon”: This is a bit of a mix – 10 Km in the classic style then another 10 Km skating – obviously including a ski change at half way with bonus seconds for both final placings and intermediate sprints – 2 intermediates on classic (top 10; I’m not sure there isn’t a third intermediate here as the FIS website says 5 intermediate points AND finish, but the Eurosport commentator suggested 2?), 2 on freestyle (top 10) and 1 more at the end (top 3)!

Another difficult day as regards the weather – quite rainy overnight and about 5 degrees today. An exciting and very close race – in the final skating section Petter Northug (Nor) who had just stayed nicely in contact through the classic sections (apparently he didn’t feel happy about fighting for bonus seconds here) moved up a gear and, with the support of his team mates, gained the maximum seconds at each intermediate (giving him 45 seconds here in total, including the win). His main rival, at this stage, Dario Cologna gained on both styles ending with 49 seconds against 41 for Alex Legkov and 37 for Marcus Hellner. Coming into the final loop some of the Russians, who did well in the sprints but in the case of Alexander Legkov (and Maxim Vylegzhanin?) didn’t get through to the final 2 races, looked as though they might have the edge on Cologna and Northug, who had both done all 4 rounds. An astonishing burst of speed coming into the finish saw both Northug and Cologna pass Vylegzhanin with a very close finish going to Northug, who took a brilliant line down the hill and through the final corner. Cologna second, Vylegzhanin third, Hellner (Swe) 4th, Rennemo (Nor) 5th and Devon Kershaw (Can) 6th – massive effort by Northug who looked absolutely shattered at the end – there is now one rest day before the next event in Toblach on Tuesday.

Women’s 5 + 5 Km Skiathlon. Unfortunately Eurosport was late joining this race, as the ski jumping ran over and they (understandably) stayed with that. Down side was missing almost all of the classic 5 Km - almost half the race! Same basic format as the men’s race but half distance – only 2 intermediate sprint bonus points too, plus finish. At the first split on ZDF ticker Therese Johaug was leading from Kowalczyk and Björgen; on to the first bonus seconds and JK took the 15 for first across the timing point, with TJ getting 12 and Kristen Störmer Steira (Nor) the 10 for third; no info on the rest, but fairly sure MB was 4th here. We joined video coverage as the athletes changed onto skating skis – as they settled a group of 4 was away – the three already mentioned as getting bonus seconds and, of course, Björgen. Into the stadium for the final time and MB led away, just clear of the other 3, although as the lap went on Steira began to drop off a little. At the second bonus Therese got the 12 from Justyna (10) and Marit who seemed content not to contest the intermediate points too hard; maybe dodgy tactics?? On the last climb Kowalczyk took Johaug, but neither seemed as good on skating skis as Marit who showed a massive burst of speed as she went for the finish, taking a very similar line to the one Northug used winning the men’s race – so, Björgen’s first win of the Tour de Ski, by only 1.6 seconds from Kowalczyk who just pipped Johaug on the line. Steira was 4th, Sarasoja-Lilja 5th and Charlotte Kalla (Swe, and unwell over Xmas) 6th. Kikkan Randall was 7th to keep her well in touch overall.

As we go into the rest day, before Tuesday’s classic individual events at Toblach, the overall standings with 4 of 9 events complete are (from FIS Cross Country):
Men: Northug; Cologna; Legkov; Vylegzhanin; Kershaw; Hellner.
Women: Kowalczyk; Björgen; Johaug; Randall; Saarinen; Kalla

Day 5 – Men’s Individual 5 Km Classic – One day’s rest so far in the series and now we’re back for more effort! Today it’s the individual classic events, first off the men’s 5 Km (or so). Early leader was Axel Teichmann (Ger) starting with bib number 2. His finish time of 13:55:50 held up quite well, but with the “fast boys” starting later he wasn’t expected to win! However, it took until bib 47 for his effort to be bettered, when Ilia Chernousov (Rus) knocked 2 seconds off his time. Back on the track Eldar Rönning (Nor) went through the split time faster than the Russian, on waxless skis, and duly clipped another 2.3 seconds off the fastest time at the finish. By that stage Cologna and Northug had started, but immediate attention was on Lukas Bauer (Cze) who was challenging Rönning’s time – in the final metres he just couldn’t hold it, and went second, 1.8 seconds off the Norwegian’s time. Back on the track the questions centred on whether Legkov, Cologna or Northug could match Rönning – Alexander Legkov (3rd overall at the start) was obviously very hungry for the win, and the Russians are famed for their hard training (note that they ended up today with 5 skiers in the top 10!) – Alex duly delivered; a massive effort gave him the lead by only 1.7 seconds! Dario Cologna managed third some 2 seconds back on Legkov, to take 5 bonus seconds (top 3 only today; 15/10/5) but Northug had given a lot in the first races and missed out on the top 10, finishing 12th today. Top 6 were – Legkov; Rönning; Cologna; Bauer; Chernousov & Teichmann.

A disappointing day for Marcus Hellner, who started the day 6th overall but slipped back today finishing 48th in this 5 Km race; Vylegzhanin, (4th overall at start) also slid back a little, although he managed 11th today and Devon Kershaw (5th overall) ended up 18th – both fast enough to retain their overall placings, but losing time to Cologna, Legkov and Bauer.

Women’s 3.3 Km Classic: Alas missed this live but skimmed the video (sans commentary) on Eurosport. Start number 25, Nicole Fessel (Ger) set the pace to beat at the 2.4 Km split and was the early leader. Norway’s Astrid Jacobsen was marginally slower at 2.4 Km but faster thereafter to take the lead away from Nicole by 1.9 seconds. Despite some well known names coming close, Fessel’s spilt time stayed fastest until very late on when Marit Björgen went about 9 seconds faster; her main rival Justyna Kowalczyk, who apparently has a knee problem, was just 0.1 seconds slower at that stage. At the finish Björgen was faster than Jacobsen to take the lead, looking really exhausted; Kowalczyk came in 3.9 seconds behind to go into second – with Björgen’s extra 5 seconds bonus for first rather than second that reduces Justyna’s overall lead to only 17.7 seconds with freestyle sprints coming up tomorrow; arguably Marit is faster there but how tired will she be after today’s efforts and how will Justyna’s knee hold up?

Today’s result – Björgen; Kowalczyk; Jacobsen; Fessel; Stefanie Böhler (Ger); Therese Johaug. Arguably the one who suffered most today was Kikkan Randall who came in in 29th position, dropping her from 4th overall to 7th. However, she’s normally a good sprinter! Johaug’s sixth today loses her some more time on the leaders, and she may not sprint as well – however longer distances to come and the final climb – very close race!

The overall standings with 5 of 9 events complete are (from FIS Cross Country):
Men: Cologna; Northug; Legkov; Vylegzhanin; Kershaw; Bauer.
Women: Kowalczyk; Björgen; Johaug; Lahteenmaki; Saarinen; Kalla

Day 6 – Men’s & Women’s 1.3 Km Freestyle Sprints: Same distance for both today – although there has been some discussion about the idea of applying the word “sprint” to such a distance! Qualification took place earlier leaving those who made it though to form 5 “quarter finals” of 6 racers per heat, then two semis with the first two from each heat plus the two fastest losers. First two from each semi then go to the final, again with the two fastest losers. Women’s QF first, and going in heat 1 is an advantage – predictably that was won by Björgen from Kowalczyk, and in a time that might help the fastest loser? Heat 2 had my favourite, Therese Johaug, but she isn’t a sprinter and went out, as did Astrid Jacobsen – the heat was won by Germany’s Denise Hermann. Heat 3 saw Kalla and Fabjan (Slo) through, but Sarasoja out; in the next one Lahteenmaki looked good early but then slowed – Kolb (Ger) won with Lahteenmaki losing a photo finish to Oestberg (Nor); more surprises! In the final heat, Kikkan Randall (USA) won easily from Heidi Weng (another photo finish).

Women then had a rest while the men ran their QFs; nice to see that GB’s Andrew Musgrave did qualify although he ended up in the same group as some bloke called Northug! In heat 1 Legkov worked really hard but to no avail – Wenzl (Ger) won from a very relaxed Dario Cologna; Legkov 5th and out. Morilov (Rus) took the 2nd heat from Jönsson; and Alex Harvey won the third. In heat 4 Marcus Hellner had a bad day catching a ski in the soft, deep stuff – he recovered really well but the extra effort cost him too much and he was outsprinted at the end by Petukhov (Rus, currently leading the sprint event standings) and Nöckler. The last heat featured Andy Musgrave, but with Hofer and Northug in the same group it was really fast (about 2 seconds up on the rest) – they took the top 2 places, with Chernousov getting a fastest loser spot; in heat 2 or 3 Musgrave might have qualified – luck of the draw, but a good effort!

On to the women’s semis and the first contained the big names; Kowalczyk, who last year didn’t do too well in the freestyle sprints seemed to like the distance and won from Björgen, who looked more relaxed – fast race! The other semi was slower with Fabjan just leading home Randall, also looking very relaxed, but arguably lucky not to have been boxed in. Poor old men only had a few minutes to recover while that took place and then were back for their semis; Cologna won the first from Morilov with Wenzl hoping for a fast loser place. Alas for the German the last semi was another really fast one, with Hofer leading home Northug with sprint specialist Petukhov in third taking a fast loser spot,, as did Alex Harvey in fourth – bad luck for Wenzl.

On to the finals – and Marit Björgen used the energy she’d saved in the semis to good effect just winning from a very fast Kikkan Randall; Justyna Kowalczyk was third but lost another 10 seconds to Marit – very close overall now as she’s only 4.8 seconds ahead! Randall’s great effort pulled her back up to 4th overall behind Therese Johaug who despite her early elimination hangs on to third – both Björgen and Kowalczyk will be happy as she climbs so well! The men’s final was slower and more tactical at the start but wound up in the middle when Northug broke away. Sprint specialist Morilov took the lead back however and kept it to the end, pipping Northug with Cologna third. Overall standings very much the same as yesterday apart from Devon Kershaw moving up to 4th.

The overall standings with 6 of 9 events complete are (from FIS Cross Country):
Men: Cologna; Northug; Legkov; Kershaw; Vylegzhanin; Manificat.
Women: Kowalczyk; Björgen; Johaug; Randall; Kalla; Lahteenmaki;

Day 7 – Men’s 32 Km free: Not a great deal to say! This 32 Km test of endurance, with about 15 Km of pretty steady uphill, is a pursuit race with the athletes starting in the order of the overall standings with the time intervals as they are after 6 events. Dario Cologna therefore led off 13 seconds ahead of Petter Northug and the general feeling seemed to be that they would work together to try to open a gap on the other nearest rivals. Northug duly closed up on Cologna, but near the start of the real climb he fell back again as Dario gave a master class in solo effort. By just under 8 Km in Cologna was 1.12 MINUTES clear of Northug, who had been joined by Legkov, with a chasing pack of 5 some 2.10 minutes back from the leader. As the race developed a couple of the chasing group dropped back, in Lukas Bauer’s case because he broke a pole. Eventually Devon Kershaw, Marcus Hellner and Maurice Manificat joined Northug and Legkov and the new pack tried to close down Dario – although it’s probably harder to keep the pace solo rather than in a group, Cologna proved to be both mentally and physically strong and the gap stayed pretty static. Generally (with the exception of Cologna), the people who picked up time today were those who hadn’t done all 4 sprints yesterday – such as Legkov. With only about 4 Km to go the gap between Dario and the 5 pack was still 1.30 minutes and he managed to keep most of that until the finish, adding a 15 second bonus for the win. Petter Northug “won” the mini sprint for the finish and 10 bonus seconds for 2nd place (some people thought he went outside the course; apparently he did - unlike Daniel Richardsson, who did something similar but perhaps didn’t benefit [opinions divided on this!] and was still severely penalised, Northug did benefit but only gets a yellow card and keeps his position and bonus!! Hardly consistent decision making by the race jury, and loads of comment on the FIS website!), with Legkov just pipping Kershaw for 3rd and the final 5 bonus seconds. Behind them came Hellner and Manificat and that, of course, is now the overall order. Rest day tomorrow, but a mass start classic race on Saturday with intermediate sprint bonuses.

Women’s 15 Km: Unlike the men’s race this was apparently “predominantly downhill” although I’m sure I spotted quite a few uphill bits! That doesn’t do my favourite, Therese Johaug, any favours – she might have preferred a course like the men had? Anyway – quite a boring race for the viewer; Björgen and Kowalczyk both went off fast and set a hard pace from the off. Behind them Therese slowly lost time, and Kikkan Randall was caught by Lahteenmaki and Kalla, with Oestberg and Kristoffersen joining them later by which time Krista Lahteenmaki had broken away a little. At the 11.8 Km split Marit was just 1 second clear of Justyna, with Therese 2.46 minutes back, then Krista at +4.26 and the group of 4 about 20 seconds further back. At the finish Björgen seemed to have more left and sprinted clear to win by 2 seconds, plus 5 extra bonus seconds. Kowalczyk was second, Johaug third, Lahteenmaki 4th, Randall sprinting to get 5th, then a photo between Kristoffersen & Kalla, and another between Zeller & Jacobsen. Much less controversial this time!

The overall standings with 7 of 9 events complete are (from FIS Cross Country):
Men: Cologna; Northug; Legkov; Kershaw; Hellner; Manificat.
Women: Björgen; Kowalczyk; Johaug; Lahteenmaki; Randall; Kristoffersen; Kalla

Day 8 – Firstly, despite over 140 comments on the FIS Cross Country website and even more on Facebook, mostly hostile, I am not aware of any statement from the FIS regarding the punishment (or rather the lack thereof) awarded to Northug after he went off the course twice on the men’s 32 Km, when a similar offence a few days before by Sweden’s Richardsson received a harsh penalty; not very consistent and not good news management either! Perhaps it’s increasingly naive to expect integrity from a sport’s governing body, especially when one rumour has it that the decision was taken before the jury even met?? No mention that I heard from the Eurosport commentators either? Northug is obviously a massive talent, and I have considerable respect for his ability, but even he needs to realise that rules should not be broken, and he won’t if the FIS don’t apply them consistently – maybe the FIS were right for Northug and got it hopelessly wrong with the Swede, but it does need explaining.

Back from politics (and commercial interests?) and on to the racing. Men’s Race today is 20 Km (maybe a bit more?) of classic, ~180 metres of height gain per round (880 in the whole race), with 5 intermediate sprints (bonus seconds for the top 10 each time – from 15 down to 1) and the usual 15/10/5 for the top 3 at the finish, so potentially 90 seconds of bonus on offer. Apparently there was a sprint at 1.7 Km (according to Eurosport) but nothing seen on ZDF who put the first bonus later on with Northug getting 15 while Cologna got 12; think Eurosport are right as the 10.3 Km bonus seemed to be listed as the third – that went to Di Centa (Ita) with Cologna second and Northug third. Lukas Bauer still well up too and adding bonus time. Russians also having a good day, although Legkov’s wax looks a bit dodgy and he is losing time, different preparation? As the race continues, some of those who didn’t do so well in the sprints are using the energy saved to come nearer the front from time to time – but at the intermediate sprints it’s the usual suspects again; Northug gets the 4th bonus ahead of Bauer and Kershaw but Cologna is still 6th so the gap remains pretty similar - missed full details as we kept going to commercial breaks! Final intermediate at about 18.2 Km; Northug and Cologna 15/12 respectively (55 to 51 today so far in favour of Northug) and not far to go to the finish. Great break by Eldar Rönning (doing his compatriot no favours?) on the final climb to hold on for the win, Alex Harvey gets second with Cologna third to just secure the sprint title (by 2 seconds??) with Northug 4th.

Women’s 10 Km Classic: All eyes on Björgen and Kowalczyk, Therese Johaug now 3:26 back in third; only 2 intermediate sprints for the women. The first sprint is 15 seconds to Kowalczyk, 12 to Björgen and 10 to Lahteenmaki (Johaug 5th). Much more open than the men’s race, more spread out; into the second bonus at 6.8 Km – JK from MB with Kalla nearly 13 seconds back in third, Johaug only 10th so just 1 second bonus. After that Justyna pulled out, Marit comes back, Justyna pulls away again - win for Kowalczyk by about 7.5 seconds getting another extra 5 for the win from Björgen (not sure about intermediate bonus standings – I think it works out overall to 11.9 seconds lead for JK at tomorrow’s start), with Kalla third about 31 seconds off the winner, but crucially Johaug was another 30 seconds adrift in 11th – surely much too much of a gap for her to catch the two leaders tomorrow? How much energy do they all have left?

Day 9 – Final day and the 9 Km Val di Fiemme races – same course for women and men and with the massive climb up the Alpe Cermis making up the final 4 Km or so – to put this in perspective, it’s actually a red downhill run in normal conditions!! Women first and this was really a two horse race (no offence intended!) as Therese Johaug is surely too far back to make any impact despite her undoubted climbing ability. What might happen behind her? Pretty much as the climb began in earnest Kowalczyk began to pull away from Björgen – as I’ve mentioned her freestyle technique might not be particularly pretty but it’s very strong and effective. That was really the race over – Marit couldn’t come back and ended the Tour 28.2 seconds back on Justyna. Therese Johaug pulled back some 40 seconds on them, her Tour lost in the sprints (I think she also recorded the fastest time for today’s race), to finish 3rd ahead of Krista Lahteenmaki, Marthe Kristofferson and Katrin Zeller – 3 Norwegians in the top 6!

The men’s race was a little more open – as with the women it all depended on the climbing capability of a group of very tired athletes, but there were more candidates ready to benefit from any weakness! Dario Cologna lost about 10 seconds to Petter Northug on the early stages along the flat valley floor, but began to pull away once on the steeper section. Meanwhile Marcus Hellner was in turn closing on Northug, in company with Devon Kershaw. Further back were Lukas Bauer (fastest on this climb last year) and a bunch of Russians, including the indefatigable Legkov. By the 8.1 Km marker they were well into the climb; Cologna was still leading by 1:27 (minutes, not seconds!) but Hellner, having shaken off Kershaw, had taken Northug – the questions now were whether he could break clear before Northug had a chance to outsprint him at the end, and if Kershaw could catch Northug if he tired. In the end Dario Cologna powered his way to his third win in 3 years, ahead of Hellner who managed to open out 42 seconds on the third placed Northug, who in turn was about 25 seconds ahead of Kershaw (arguably what he gained on the Canadian in the controversial 32 Km race?). Alex Legkov finished 5th (over a minute faster than Cologna on the course) – wonder what he might have done with better wax on a couple earlier classic races? Lukas Bauer took 6th – massive effort by all of them; Hellner is the first Swede to podium in the men’s event and Devon Kershaw is, I believe, the best placed Canadian in the event so far. That’s it for this year!!

The overall standings with all 9 events complete are (from FIS Cross Country):
Men: Cologna; Hellner; Northug; Kershaw; Legkov; Bauer.
Women: Kowalczyk; Björgen; Johaug; Lahteenmaki; Kristofferson; Zeller