One week after Tour de Ski, it is time for the sprinters again. On Saturday Liberec is hosting a classic sprint in the World Champs courses from 2009. This is only the second classic sprint in the World Cup this year, and as classic sprint is on the program in the World Champs in Val di Fiemme later this year, this is a very important race for World Champs selections.

• Set up your predictions ahead of the start of the qualification at Saturday 12:15 CET

Most of the top sprinters are on the start in Liberec. Absent are some of the Tour de Ski participants in addition to Marit Bjørgen who waits another week with her comeback. Dario Cologna, Petter Northug, Julia Ivanova, Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen and Kikkan Randall are some of the good sprinters who are not on the start. Notably present is Justyna Kowalczyk – still going strong after her tough Tour de Ski win last weekend.

Men: Brandsdal on top again?

The main favourites in this classic sprint are Nikita Kruikov and Eirik Brandsdal – finishing 1st and 3rd in the Kuusamo classic sprint. Brandsdal has an impressive series of results in the last 5 classic sprints in the World Cup with the series 3 – 1 -1 – 16 – 3. Kriukov won in Kuusamo, and has 3 of 5 within Top 5. The Swedes Emil Jönsson and Teodor Peterson are also strong classic sprinters, although none of them got top results in Kuusamo. Also look out for Len Valjas who finished last season with 3rd and 2nd place in the classic sprints in Stockholm and Drammen, respectively. The Canadian also showed great shape at the end of the Tour de Ski.

The last man to note is Ola Vigen Hattestad who is making his debut in the 2012/2013 season. According to himself he is not strong enough to go to the final, but he will be an interesting man to look out for.

Women: Can Kowalczyk continue her classic raid?

Justyna Kowalczyk showed during Tour de Ski that her classic shape is extremely good now. Can she beat all the sprint specialists in Liberec only one week after finishing the toughest race of the season up Alpe Cermis? Maiken Caspersen Falla had very strong results in the last three sprints last year – with the series 4 – 4 – 3, and is the main favourite to beat Kowalczyk. Also look out for Katerina Smutna, Celine Brun-Lie, Natalia Matveeva and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen.

Men starters – historical results

Name		2012 Kuusamo 2012-11-30 SP C Final	2012 Stockholm 2012-03-14 SP C Final	2012 Drammen 2012-03-07 SP C Final	2012 Lahti 2012-03-04 SP C Final	2012 Otepaa 2012-01-21 SP C Final
BRANDSDAL Eirik		3rd	1st	1st	16th	3rd
KRIUKOV Nikita		1st	26th	13th	3rd	5th
JOENSSON Emil		9th	12th	5th	1st
PETERSON Teodor		8th	2nd	9th	2nd	26th
VALJAS Len		53rd	3rd	2nd	19th	21st
HATTESTAD Ola Vigen			4th	38th	4th	2nd
GOLBERG Paal		13th	22nd	3rd	28th	8th
RETIVYKH Gleb		11th	9th	10th	6th	9th
NEWELL Andrew		27th	7th	6th	15th	7th
PANZHINSKIY Alexander				4th	21st	12th
LASSILA Kalle		6th		39th	25th	10th
HAMILTON Simeon		24th		7th	11th	33rd
PETUKHOV Alexey		7th	16th	22nd	48th	25th
PASINI Fabio		50th	15th	34th	7th
PETTERSEN Oeystein		30th		54th	34th	6th
WENZL Josef		22nd	21st	12th		22nd
KETELAE Toni		14th		26th	14th
STRANDVALL Matias		16th	27th	21st	27th	38th
PENTSINEN Anssi		29th		14th	22nd	27th
PERSSON Simon				62nd	9th
GAFAROV Anton				27th	36th	11th
EDIN Johan				28th	13th	29th
ROENNING Eldar		21st	17th
KUMMEL Peeter		28th				13th
GLOEERSEN Anders			24th	50th	45th	15th
PELLEGRINO Federico			20th	31st	20th
BRYNTESSON Robin					12th	34th
ERIKSSON Jens		26th			41st	16th
EINASTE Kein				25th	49th	20th
SAAREPUU Anti		20th		30th	42nd	52nd

Women starters – historical results

Name		2012 Kuusamo 2012-11-30 SP C Final	2012 Stockholm 2012-03-14 SP C Final	2012 Drammen 2012-03-07 SP C Final	2012 Lahti 2012-03-04 SP C Final	2012 Otepaa 2012-01-21 SP C Final
KOWALCZYK Justyna		7th	9th	3rd	3rd	1st
SHAPOVALOVA Evgenia		2nd		20th	27th	26th
FALLA Maiken Caspersen			3rd	4th	4th	12th
MATVEEVA Natalia				28th	7th	3rd
VISNAR Katja		6th	5th	13th	11th	10th
SMUTNA Katerina		17th	6th	31st	24th	5th
MALVALEHTO Mona-Lisa		11th	13th	9th	22nd	6th
SAARINEN Aino- Kaisa		16th	22nd		26th	4th
CRAWFORD Chandra		37th	12th	5th	69th	22nd
GAIAZOVA Daria		14th	23rd	8th	13th	17th
FESSEL Nicole		22nd	14th	10th	12th	19th
OESTBERG Ingvild Flugstad		23rd	20th	21st	15th	7th
INGEMARSDOTTER Ida			10th	22nd	39th	8th
JEAN Aurore		44th	26th	6th	21st
FABJAN Vesna		19th	7th	32nd	17th	33rd
BRUN-LIE Celine		8th		41st
SARGENT Ida		9th		46th	52nd	29th
NISKANEN Kerttu		25th				11th
GJEITNES Kari Vikhagen				45th	10th
JONES Perianne		12th		61st	58th	39th
VAN DER GRAAFF Laurien			15th	29th		38th
KOLB Hanna		26th	33rd	19th	47th
PROCHAZKOVA Alena		21st		40th	36th	24th
TRACHSEL Doris		45th		55th	46th	16th
EIDE Mari				16th
PAJALA Magdalena		20th				31st
GROENVOLL Maria Nysted				36th	20th
USATOVA Oxana				50th		23rd
NILSSON Stina				23rd