The first ski trip of the Lahti World Cup, the women’s pair sprint, turned into a huge battle in which drama was not avoided.
Sweden’s first team Jonna Sundling and Linn Svahn pushed for an overwhelming victory. Since 2015, Swedish women have now won 12/15 World Cup pairs sprints.
Already in the opening section, it became clear that Sundling has a great pace. The race turned out to be a very difficult one, even in terms of the conditions, where endurance qualities were required.
Krista Pärmäkoski and Johanna Matintalo did a great performance and were second. In third place is the first team of Germany Katharina Hennig and Laura Gimmler. The Norwegian teams finished fourth and fifth.
Finland’s second team Anne Kyllönen and Jasmi Joensuu was sixth.
Finnish women have been on the podium of the world cup in pair sprint last in January 2014 in Nove Mesto. Then Mona-Lisa The raspberry grove and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen were others with traditional.
In total, Finnish women have been on the pair sprint podium nine times. There are two wins, both from 2013. The second win was won by Malvalehto and Kyllönen, the other by Kyllönen and Saarinen.
Pärmäkoski, in particular, is having a minor winning season. In the goal area, the Finnish duo jumped for joy. It was not unclear how good success tastes in home games.
This is how the race progressed
The first change was led by Sundling, then Sweden’s second team Frida Karlsson and Germany’s Hennig. Pärmäkoski meant to stay in the opening section, but in the final descent he still managed to get into a nice position, at the change the gap to the top was about 4 seconds.
In the second part, we saw a wild drama. Sweden’s second team Maja Dahlqvist crashed and also took Germany’s Laura Gimmler with her. On top of everything, Dahlqvist’s ski broke. Dahlqvist tried to get to the exchange with one ski, but fell. In the end, he got a new ski from the maintenance man.
In the second exchange, Sweden’s first team, Norway’s first team and Finland’s first team came in order. Finland’s difference to the top was 3.5 seconds. Joensuu brought Finland’s second team to the exchange in fifth place, a difference of 4.8 seconds.
In the third leg, Sweden’s Sundling pushed away at the latest. In the third change, Finland’s first and second team and Norway’s first and second team had left the lead by more than 10 seconds.
In the fourth leg, it was clear that Sweden’s number one team was rolling to an overwhelming victory. Linn Svahn just widened the gap. Instead, the other two podium places seemed to be a battle between the two teams from Norway and the two teams from Finland. ‘s expert Ville Nousiainen stated that the most important thing would be to keep up the pace and freeze even Norway’s wild kirityk Kristine Stavås of Skistad power. The skis of the Norwegians seemed to be very slippery.
Despite Kolar, the German number one team was in pain, only a few seconds behind the Finns and Norwegians in the fourth stage. In the fifth leg, Pärmäkoski tried to tighten up, but was unable to escape. Instead, Germany’s Hennig joined the fight. Suddenly there were five teams in the bundle again.
Finland’s first team, both Norwegian teams and Germany’s first team came together for the last change. The change of Norway’s first team went awry and Skistad fell far short of the rest of the group.
On the uphill section of the last section, Matintalo did a wonderful trick. He tightened his grip and in an instant separated himself from the others by several meters. Although Matintalo struggled in the final downhill section on virtually every leg, he was able to maintain a sufficient gap. Germany’s Gimmler beat the Norwegians in the final round.
Pärmäkoski sets the mood: “Absolutely insane”
Pärmäkoski skied the odd sections, Matintalo was the anchor.
– We had a little conflict about which of us would be the anchor. I don’t know if in the finals I was happy that I had to be anchored. Now, of course, in retrospect, you can say that it was a good decision to ski like this, Matintalo smiled.
Finnish skiers had a great day in the pair sprints of the Salpausselä Games, when a moment after the women’s race, the Finnish men’s first team Iivo Niskanen and Lauri Vuorinen stretched to third.
Pärmäkoski was in awe and super happy especially that Vuorinen got the honor of sealing the Finnish men’s top three.
– Absolutely insane. It’s really great to open the races in this way. Hats off to Lauri, he really got to finish that podium, Pärmäkoski beamed.
For Vuori, the podium is the first in the World Cup.
– My podium warms you up, but Lauri’s podium warms you even more. It was Lauri’s first podium ever, even though he has tried many times, Matintalo was happy.
Updated at 18:34. Added an interview with Matintalo and Pärmäkoski.