Finnish success in SkiO season opener
Posted on | November 27, 2017 | Category: Arena, News
The home crowd had plenty to cheer about in celebrating victory for Salla Koskela in today’s Sprint. Top-ranked Andrey Lamov, Russia was the best of the men.
The competition started with the women’s Sprint on a cloudy day with temperatures around -5° in Ylläs, north of the Arctic Circle in Finland. A complex network of ski tracks and paths faced the competitors, who had a course of 3.3 km with 85 m climb, taking the most “sensible route” as the course planner put it. It was easy to make route choice mistakes and turning errors, and the skier who coped best was Salla Koskela, double silver medallist in last season’s World Championships individual races and fourth in the IOF World Rankings. She completed the course in 12.12, a speed of 3.41 minutes per km. Second was top Russian Mariya Kechkina, 3 seconds slower, and 5 seconds slower again was Tove Alexandersson, Sweden who lost a little time with a route choice error. Russia had three in the top six in the results today.
The men had a longer course, 4.3 km with 120 m climb, and were of course faster skiers than the women. Russia again had three in the top six, amongst these numbers 1 and 2 in the race, Andrey Lamov and Vladislav Kiselev. Lamov, who is current European Sprint and Long Distance Champion, raced at 3.10 minutes per km. and was 5 seconds faster than Kiselev. Third was the Bulgarian Stanimir Belomazhev, 2 seconds down on Kiselev. The up-and-coming Finnish skier Tero Linnainmaa achieved a creditable fifth place. Last season’s top star Erik Rost (Sweden) finished eighth.
Tomorrow the tempo changes, with Middle Distance races starting at 10.30 (UTC + 2).
Leading results, Sprint
Women
- Salla Koskela FIN 12:12
- Mariya Kechkina RUS 12:15
- Tove Alexandersson SWE 12:20
- Tatyana Oborina RUS 12:27
5= Magdalena Olsson SWE & Anastasia Kravchenko RUS 12:47
Men
- Andrey Lamov RUS 13:37
- Vladislav Kiselev RUS 13:42
- Stanimir Belomazhev BUL 13:44
- Sergey Gorlanov RUS 13:49
- Tero Linnainmaa FIN 13:51
6= Ville Petteri Saarela FIN & Lars Moholdt NOR 13:54
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