Five of the Swedish men and all three blue-yellow ladies have advanced to the final round in Friday's World Cup sprint in classic style, which is stage five of seven in the Tour de Ski.
On the men's side, Edvin Anger, who took an unexpected second place in the pursuit in Toblach the other day, was the fastest Swede. Anger finished ninth in the qualifying round, just over five seconds behind Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo.
Normally, Anger is also faster in sprint than in distance. His two previous individual podium finishes in the World Cup have both come in sprint, although in free style.
Also, Emil Danielsson, Oskar Svensson, Marcus Grate, and William Poromaa have advanced to the quarterfinals.
On the ladies' side, all three remaining Swedish women advanced. Among them was distance specialist Ebba Andersson, who usually has a hard time advancing from sprint qualifying rounds.
But it was close.
Andersson secured a spot in the quarterfinals as the 30th and last skier, despite being almost 14 seconds slower than the qualifying winner, Finnish skier Jasmi Joensuu.
Linn Svahn was fourth, just over three seconds behind Joensuu, and Moa Ilar 18th (+8.64 seconds).
Many have dropped out of the Tour de Ski during the tour. Therefore, only 42 skiers started in the ladies' sprint qualifying round.
The final round begins at 14.45.
