CROSS-COUNTRY SKI. The FIS Nordic Junior and U-23 Cross-Country World Ski Championships were successfully held from 20th-27th January 2013 in Liberec, Czech Republic.

Already for the second time, Liberec welcomed the world’s best Nordic skiers. Perfect snow conditions at the World Championships 2009 venues with well-prepared courses and ski jumps welcomed almost 650 athletes and 371 team members.

In the overall medal table, the clear dominator was Russia which claimed whopping 6 gold medals, 7 silver medals and 5 bronze medals. Germany in 2nd position collected 5 gold medals, whilst Slovenia finished in 3rd place with 3 gold medals.

The prestigious Marc Hodler Trophy awarded to the best nation in the junior events was won by Germany. Last year’s winner Russia was 2nd while Norway took third ahead of Austria and Slovenia.

As part of the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Cross-Country Skiing, four competitions per gender were held.

The opening competition of the championships, classic technique sprint was dominated like last year in Erzurum by Sweden’s Stina Nilsson ahead of Victoria Carl (GER) and Evgenia Oschepkova (RUS). The 5 km free saw a sensational victory of German youngster Victoria Carl who proved to have not only sprinting but also distance skills. Austria’s Teresa Stadlober took silver medal ahead of Anastasia Sedova of Russia. 5 km classic + 5 km free skiathlon of the junior ladies saw the first ever Austrian victory at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships thanks to Teresa Stadlober who edged out two Russians Nadezhda Shuniaeva and Alisa Zhambalova. On the final day of the Junior World Championships, Swedish junior ladies romped to victory in 4x3.3 km relay. Sweden and Russia were fighting hard for the victory but it was Stina Nilsson who anchored team Sweden to gold. Germany finished in third place.

For the junior men’s competitions, Lennart Metz of Germany kicked off the championships with a bang as he sprinted to the gold medal ahead of Vadim Korolev (RUS) and Bjoern Vidar Suhr (NOR). Meanwhile, Dmitry Rostovtsev became one of the heroes of Liberec 2013 as he led the Russian squad to gold medals in all three remaining three disciplines. Rostovtsev topped the podium in 10 km free before compatriot Artem Maltsev and Germany’s Martin Weisheit. The Russian armada led once again by Rostovtsev dominated 10 km classic + 10 km free skiathlon with Maltsev in silver and Chervotkin in third. The final competition of the championships 4x5 km relay men was again under the command of Russian juniors. They defended the titles from Erzurum sending Norway to second and Sweden to third place.

The U-23 Cross-Country World Championships entailed two distance competitions (individual start race in free technique & skiathlon) and a sprint competition in classic technique. On the men's side, Italy’s sprint specialist Federico Pellegrino finally made it to the top and claimed the gold medal in the sprint. Runner-up Juho Mikkonen of Finland took his last chance in the U23 class and sprinted to silver. Bronze medal went to Russia’s Evgeniy Belov. Men’s 15 km free was all about Russian skiers with Sergey Ustiugov in first and Belov in second. Thomas Bing gave Germany the bronze. The same winner and runner up could be seen in 15 km classic + 15 km free skiathlon as Mark Starostin for Kazakhstan won the bronze.

The sprint classic for the U23 ladies was dominated by Russia’s Elena Soboleva ahead of two Germans; Sandra Ringwald and Hanna Kolb. Ragnhild Haga became the most successful Norwegian athlete at the U23 World Championships in Liberec with two gold medals. First she dominated 10 km free ahead of Anastassia Slonova (KAZ) and Debora Agreiter (ITA) and then conquered her second gold medal in the 15 km skiathlon having edged out Agreiter (ITA) and Kari Oeyre Slind (NOR).

FIScrosscountry.com
Wednesday 30 January 2013

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