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Show John Mike Downey, Butte, Mont., who finished second. The two leaders of the Finnish Fin-nish team entered the first day of racing in Aspen on December 14 and both claimed claim-ed victory. Juhani Repo topped topp-ed the men's field.but Yeager Yeag-er was only 42 seconds off his pace. Kilkka Kuntolawon the women's first-place prize as Richter took second sec-ond with a respectable time. In the mass start race on December 15 at Aspen, Yeager Yeag-er fell during the start and was trampled by some of the 250 entrants in the citizen race. He managed to right himself, overtook the leaders lead-ers and won the race with a seven-second margin over Tim Caldwell, Putney, Vt. Richter won the women's contest, which the Finns declined de-clined to enter, but had to overtake Cindy Farny of the Aspen Ski Club just before the finish line. "We certainly aren't disappointed dis-appointed by our results in the Colorado races," stated U.S. nordic program director direc-tor Jim Balfanz. 'The Finns are very, very good skiers and we were pleased that our athletes kept as close on their heels as they did. The tact that an our skiers were within striking distance of each other indicates that the team as a whole is really making progress." Most of the U.S. Crosscountry Cross-country Team members who are not in Europe will compete com-pete in meets in New Zealand Zea-land beginning with a race in Hanover, N.H., December Decem-ber 20. The four Finnish guests plan to enter at Hanover Han-over and on December 22 at Lyndonville, Vt., before returning re-turning to Finland. Good Circuit DENVER- The U.S. Ski Team concluded con-cluded a successful circuit of three cross-country races in Colorado with Ron Yeager, Yeag-er, Durango, Colo., and Margie Mar-gie Richter, Anchorage, ,Alas., leading their team -mates on result lists which reflected very close competition. com-petition. Finnish national team members topped the U.S. Skiers in three of the four races they entered, but Richter, Rich-ter, a 22-year-old Olympic veteran, tied Liisa Suilkon-en Suilkon-en in the women's final Colorado Colo-rado race at Vail on December Decem-ber 17 for her best race of the season. "I didn't feel very good during the first part of the race," Richter recalled, 'but when Liisa hadn't caught me after two kilometers, I figured I must be skiing pretty well, so I really turned it on." In the men's race at Vail, Finland's Arto Koivisto put off the challenge of U.S. team rookie |