Patricija Eidukas did not lose much to the leaders and showed the 46th result, separating her from the quarter-finals by three seconds. The two best of our three representatives in the men’s competition, Lauris Kaparkalējs and Raimo Vīgants, also made it into the top 50, being a little less than two seconds behind the quarter-finals.
The “Tour de ski” multi-stage skiing series started today with the freestyle sprint qualification in the picturesque Italian mountain valley of Toblach. For the first time in this prestigious series, four representatives of Latvia went to the start – Patrīcija Eidukas in the women’s competition, as well as Lauris Kaparkalējs, Raimo Vīgants and Niks Saulītis in the men’s competition. If our men’s representatives had already competed in at least one of the stages this season, this was Eiduka’s debut at the highest level this season.
As we have already reported, taking into account the overloads in the fall, Eiduka currently has a plan to get out of the overload pit, so she does not expect anything from herself, currently setting her goal to give her body a chance to get used to the competition. As a result, those involved in the sport realized that high-quality results cannot be expected from the Baltic’s leading female skier.
Patricija Eidukas started the qualification well, but in the end she had to drop down several positions and take the 46th place, which is good for the current situation. There were three seconds left until the thirtieth or quarter-final.
Unexpectedly, the fastest time was shown by Eiduka’s peer from Italy, Federica Cassola, for whom this is only her fifth start at the World Cup stages and the second time she has reached the quarterfinals. By three tenths of a second, the Italian overtook the Swede Hagström and the American Diggins.
The fastest sprinters Jonna Sundling and Emma Rybom from Sweden are not participating in the Tour de ski.
For men, Lauris Kaparkalējs was close to the thirtieth after the half distance, or 700m, but this time, unlike Davos, he did not improve at the end, but lost several positions. Although this time Kaparkalei didn’t have such a good start, he overtook more than half of his competitors and entered the top 50 with the 48th result, earning World Cup points in the third sprint in a row.
This time, Raimo Vigants showed a very similar result to Kaparkalēju, who lost less than two tenths of a second to Lauri and ranked right behind the local resident in 49th place. Finishing in the top 50 after more than 20 months and earning his first points of the season. Niks Saulītis overtook 19 competitors and took 81st place, just 0.03 seconds short of the 80th place, which was completed by none other than Norwegian Ivers Andersens, who won the freestyle distance at the World Cup.
All four Estonians remained behind Kaparkalej and Vigant.
Without any surprises, the Norwegian Klebo was the fastest, who beat the Frenchman in Shanava by one and a half seconds, thus repeating the Davos sprint qualification.