. world ski news : Nika Fleiss winner of the charity race, Janica and Ana put an end to Sljeme curse - 06 ßíóàðè 2013 - 20:10
Nika Fleiss is the winner of the charity race ”dm Zagreb Ski Legends”, held at the end of the Audi FIS Ski World Cup “Vip Snow Queen Trophy” 2013. In the final she beat Switzerland’s Peter Müller, one of the oldest competitors in the race.
Photo: Skijanje.hr
Although Janica Kostelić and Ana Jelušić lost in the first round against Tamara McKinney and Urska Horvat, they did so in an impressive manner. First Janica lost her stick and gloves while racing, just like six years ago in her legendary race on Sljeme, and then Ana picked them up on the course and returned them to Janica at the finish line. Thus they simbolically ended the so-called ”Sljeme curse”, because of which the Croatian skiers have so many times been close to victory, but missed it every time due to an unfortunate set of circumstances.
Photo: Skijanje.hr
On her way to final victory, Nike was better than Špela Pretnar, Kristian Ghedina and Thomas Sykora. Müller won against Bojan Križaj, Urška Hrovat and Marc Girardelli, who was better than Sykora in the race for third place.
Photo: Skijanje.hr
The charity race was held in a very relaxed and fun atmosphere, and closed by organizing committee director Vedran Pavlek, who himself skied down the slalom course and in the finish line symbolically showed the bib of Ante Kostelić-Gips, father and coach of Ivica Kostelić.
The charity race featuring skiing legends this year was back in the program of Vip Snow Queen Trophy event, after two-year break, under the name of dm Zagreb Ski Legends, sponsored by dm-drogerie markt. The donation from the ski legends’ race will be in the form of an annual supply of personal care and hygiene products for the Special Hospital for Children with Chronic Diseases in Gornja Bistra. After the ski legends’ race, dm will continue its campaign entitled Winter Has a Warm Heart Too throughout January. During that January campaign dm’s customers will get a 25-percent discount on select products and thus enable the donation of an annual supply of necessities for the patients at the Gornja Bistra hospital.
A total of 16 participants racing legends in their glittering careers won a total of 52 medals in World championships and Olympic Games, 19 Olympic medals, ten big Crystal globes and 27 small Crystal globes. Together they have more than 200 World Cup victories and almost 500 podiums.
Vip Snow Queen Trophy
www.vipsnowqueentrophy.com
2013/01/06, 8:17 PM
Photo: Tibor God / Vip Snow Queen Trophy