12 Latvian athletes, who were represented in the junior (2006 and younger) boys and girls, as well as in the adult group (starting from 2005) men, went to Italy to compete in the world championship held as part of the World Roller Skating Games. A little more than 20 participants started in the juniors, and more than thirty participants went to the start in the adults. Several Latvians managed to enter the top ten, but the greatest success was ensured by Georgs Shmalcs and Frida Salnikova, who both won medals.
Georgs Schmaltz had previously won the European junior championship in giant slalom, as well as earned a silver medal in slalom at the continental championship, but so far he had not managed to climb onto the podium at the world championship. In this championship, the roller slalomist from Ikšķile did it, moreover, with the highest success and, accordingly, winning the gold medal.
In the giant slalom, Schmaltz was in second position after the first run (20.310 seconds), less than two tenths behind the leader Christian Rondi from Italy, but with the fastest time on the second course (19.719 seconds), Georg beat the home team by 0.2 seconds in the sum of two runs and became the junior world champion. champion, winning his first individual medal at the world championships, because last year he and his teammates (Elza and Frida Salnikova, Dāvi Zvejnieku) won silver in the team competition.
The next day, in the giant slalom and combined slalom, Georg Schmalz unfortunately makes a mistake at the end of the first run and falls, getting injured and withdrawing from the competition. Georgs was close to the second medal in the slalom, but unfortunately, the best junior in Latvia suffered a similar fate as in the combination competition. Schmaltz showed the third time in the first race, 0.2 seconds behind the leader, but one second ahead of the 4th place, which gave a very good chance to win the second medal. However, Schmalz did not want to settle for bronze, but wanted to win again, so in the second race he went “all the way” to win back what he had lost, but unfortunately he made a mistake and was left without a result and, therefore, with medals.
In the parallel slalom, Schmalz overcame the first two elimination rounds and entered the quarter-finals, where he had to fight with the slalom and combination champion Mattia Pe from Italy. Ikškilietis lost to the home team and took 7th place in the overall standings.
The second medal for Latvia was secured by Frida Salnikova, who fought until the final, where she lost to the German Nicolas Josefiana, becoming the junior vice-champion. Frida took the high 4th place in the giant slalom, only 0.2 seconds short of the top three or the second medal. In the combination, she made a mistake in the second race and was left without a result, but in the special slalom she was the best from Latvia with 7th place. Frida’s twin sister Elsa Salnikova started well in two disciplines, entering the top six. Elsa was fourth in parallel slalom and sixth in giant slalom.
Rihards Allen achieved a recognized result in adults, starting his first season in this group, who won sixth place in slalom with two good runs. Allen was in the mix for the top ten, taking 11th. Estere Ausekle, who reached the quarterfinals in the junior parallel slalom and took sixth place, also entered the top six. Two other juniors of ours entered the top ten, Esther Jansone with 7th place in combination and 8th place in giant slalom and Annija Biez with 9th place in giant slalom, as well as Valdemārs Kuzminskis with 9th place in slalom, showing the 7th time in the second race.
Good performance for the Latvian team with Šmalc, Frida Salnikova, Janson and Allen, who took 4th place in the slalom team competition, where juniors were together with adults, 1.8 seconds short of a medal. The Italians won. In the giant slalom team competition, some of our team fell while fighting for medals, so in the end the Latvians took sixth place (Allens, Šmalcs and the Salnikova sisters).
A few more good places could have been achieved in the adult group, but Dāvis Zvejnieks had a fall in the first start in the giant slalom, got injured, and thus the championship was unfortunately over for him. His younger brother Jurgis achieved the best result in slalom, taking 12th place among adults, but Gatis Latkovskis had a better start in combined, where he finished 22nd.
2024-09-14 23:40:29