Three Alaskans — a skier, a figure skater and an ultrarunner — performed well on big stages over the weekend.
In Russia, Keegan Messing of Girdwood claimed fifth place in the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, where he posted his second straight top-5 finish on the ISU Grand Prix figure skating circuit.
In Norway, Sadie Bjornsen of Anchorage took third place in an FIS cross-country ski race in Beitostoelen, a tuneup for the upcoming World Cup season.
And in Maryland, Allan Spangler of Juneau captured third place in a strong field of runners in the JFK 50 Mile ultrarace.
Messing didn’t skate as well in Russia as he did last month when he earned the silver medal at Skate Canada. But he vaulted from seventh place after the short program to fifth place overall by finishing sixth in Saturday’s long program.
Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan took with 278.42 points followed by Morisi Kvitelashvili of Georgia (248.58) and Kazuki Tomono of Japan (238.73).
Messing, who struggled with his quads, falling on his quad-triple combination in the short program and missing both of his quads in the long program.
"I really had to fight for everything," Messing told reporters after the competition. "I can leave here knowing I gave it a solid fight."
Bjornsen, a two-time Olympian coming off her best season, opened the new season with a podium finish in an FIS 10-kilometer freestyle race in Beitostoelen, where she and Scott Patterson of Anchorage were the only Americans in a field dominated by Norwegians.
Therese Johaug gave Norway a 1-2 finish by winning in 24 minutes, 21.5 seconds. Bjornsen — who placed a career-best sixth in last season’s World Cup overall rankings — was 1:45.9 behind in third place.
In an example of how competitive the men’s fields can be at the international level, the gap between first place and third place in the women’s 10K was nearly the same as the gap between the first place and 22nd place in the men’s 15K race. Sjur Roethe of Norway won in 33:45.7, with Patterson finishing 1:45.2 back in 22nd place.
Patterson, who placed 11th in the Olympic 50K race in February, appears to have recovered from a broken toe that hindered his training this summer. The injury kept him out of Mount Marathon but he managed to win a record-tying fifth title at the Crow Passing Crossing in late July.
At Crow Pass, Patterson finished comfortably ahead of second-place Spangler and third-place Zach Miller, who met up again Saturday in Maryland for the JFK 50 Mile.
Held two days after a big snowstorm hit the East Coast, Spangler placed third behind winner Jared Hazen of Flagstaff, Arizona, and second-place Miller, an elite ultrarunner from Colorado.
The snow made for slick and sloppy conditions for the 56-year-old race, a portion of which is held on the Appalachian Trail. Hazen nonetheless ran the second fastest time in history to take the win in 5:34:22.
Miller placed second in 5:41:02 and Spangler just missed breaking the six-hour barrier, finishing third in 6:00:48.