Iivo Niskanen can already reach his fifth victory in Ruka. However, first place would be the Finn’s first in a ten-kilometer split start race.
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The World Cup seasons of the Nordic skiing sports, i.e. cross-country, ski jumping and combined, start this weekend in Ruka. Urheilu predicts the weekend with three draws.
Niskanen is chasing his fifth victory
Iivo Niskanen The intermediate start race on traditional skiing in Ruka has been particularly favorable. He has won the 15 km skiing race no less than Four times in 2014, 2016, 2019, 2021.
Now the men have ten kilometers instead of 15 kilometers for the second time in a row in Ruka. All eight of Niskanen’s World Cup competition victories are from that competition format.
Based on the race skied in Olos a couple of weeks ago, the ten kilometer race format suits Niskanen perfectly. In a tough international race, he beat the Norwegians with a winning margin of 24 seconds.
Although the result was not as messy in the Ruka general on Sunday, the 31-year-old star skier is among the winning favorites based on the early season.
For Finns, this trip is the best success of the entire weekend, because in the women’s race Krista Pärmäkoski can be predicted for the podium fight.
Based on Ruka’s Suomen Cup, Pärmäkoski seemed to be in good shape.
– Krista’s skiing is good and looks cheerful. Cross-country skiing and cross-country skiing are also good, Ville Nousiainen stated during the race.
Ruka has good memories of that trip from Pärmäkoski, as she has been there twice among the three in the traditional ten-kilometer intermediate start race. Last year he was fifth.
What is Kläbo’s striking ability?
One of the hottest topics in the skiing world at the moment is the Norwegian star Johannes Hösflot Kläbon and the Norwegian cross-country team. The Norwegian jumped out of the national team in the summer.
The 27-year-old star skier, who dominated men’s international competitions for years, had disagreements about the details of the athlete contract required for World Cup eligibility. The parties finally reached some sort of agreement on the matter.
Kläbo finally skis in the World Cup with the help of a special contract. The country’s union has been perceived to have given up in the Kläbo saga.
The overall winner of last winter’s World Cup recently contracted the coronavirus, so the Norwegian’s condition is a big subject of interest. Last weekend, in the hard-level games in Norway, he beat the other peaks on the normal distance and is usually successful in sprints Erik Valnes so he goes into Friday’s sprint as the biggest early favorite.
The new competition format gets its baptism of fire
In Ruka, you will also see something completely fresh, when the combined team competes for the first time in a new competition format.
It is an individual compact competition format, which should favor hard skiers more. In recent years, the sport has been seen to go more and more in the direction of good hill jumpers.
On the hill section, the best can get a maximum of only six seconds difference on the track. After that, the differences are five seconds, four seconds and three seconds.
There are three such competitions in this season’s World Cup program. The best in the sport gets their own little crystal ball at the end of the season.
Star of Finland Ilkka Herola believes that the spectators will get excited about the competition format.
– It is a welcome concept, because the sport has gone in the direction that the differences on the hill have grown continuously, and this has not yet been compensated for in any other way, Herola stated at the national team’s media conference for Urheilu.
Ruka World Cup program
Friday 24.11.
10.55 Cross-country sprint qualifying (p)
11.50 Combined men’s race (HS 142) hill section
3:55 p.m. Ski section of the combined men’s race (7.5 km)
17.00 Hill jumping men’s qualifying competition (HS 142)
Saturday 25.11.
9.55 Combined men’s hill section
10.55 Cross-country skiing, women’s 10 km (p)
13.10 Cross-country skiing, men 10 km (p)
15.10 Combined men’s cross-country skiing section (10 km)
17.10 Men’s 1st round of hill jumping
18.25 Men’s 2nd round of hill jumping
Sunday 26.11
9.55 Combined men’s joint start (10 km)
10.55 Cross-country skiing, women’s 20 km (v)
13.30 Cross-country skiing, men’s 20 km (v)
14.35 Combined men’s hill section
17.10 Men’s 1st round of hill jumping
18.25 Men’s 2nd round of hill jumping