Kerttu Niskanen and Krista Pärmäkoski will meet on Sunday – Toni Roponen has high expectations for the duo

Kerttu Niskanen and Krista Pärmäkoski are the teeth of the Finnish team on this season’s Tour de Ski tour. Niskanen stretched himself to a great performance in the opening leg, as he made it all the way to the semi-finals in the freestyle sprint at Val Müstair. Niskanen assured after the race that, despite this, the free sprint is not his new favorite distance.

– It really isn’t! This is the worst trip of the Tour, and by no means pleasant. The focus is on those longer distances, so it’s good that they found at least a little sharpness, he said, but was still upset about his semi-final skiing.

– At first I thought that if I go to the semi-finals, then it’s good. But now that I was last in the semi-final, I feel bad.

Niskanen admitted that the Opening Day was important, as the winner of the race received a 60-second credit to his qualifying time. Niskanen got a credit of 22 seconds in his 12th place, and he thinks that the bonus seconds given from the sprint makes a terrible difference between the skiers.

– And when you ski normal distances on easy tracks, they are such differences that normal distance skiers cannot do miracles. That’s why it’s important to succeed in these sprints in some way.

Sports expert Toni Roposen in my opinion, Kerttu Niskanen surpassed himself in the day’s competition. He reminded that the Finnish skier has succeeded in both sprint races, as Niskanen was also in the semifinals in Beitsostölen’s traditional skiing sprint.

– This was a real self-transcendence. It was the weakest trip and such a great performance. It certainly gives self-confidence and, above all, good settings for tomorrow’s competition, Roponen reminded.

Roponen: “game over” for Diggins

Krista Pärmäkoski finished in Val Müstair in the same place as in Beitostölen’s sprint, 17th. Before Christmas, Pärmäkoski was no less than fifth in the Davos freestyle skiing sprint.

– The time trial was by no means as good skiing as the heat skiing. I believe that if I had gone on, it would have been good. It’s a bit sad now, but if only I could save some energy for tomorrow, Pärmäkoski thought.

Roponen reminded that Pärmäkoski by no means failed, as one of the Tour’s pre-favourites did, Jessie Diggins. The American froze badly in qualifying and didn’t make it to the heats at all.

– Krista did not rule out her potential and opportunity for success. Tomorrow he has a great trip ahead of him and he will get to chase Kerttu quite close, Roponen said.

– For Diggins, I would say that it is “game over” if we are thinking about the top ranking. He lost a minute and 14 seconds today. If he loses so much time on the best trip, it requires others to fail and himself to stretch a lot on the traditional trips, so that he can get up and fight for a place in the top three.

The joint rebellion helped change the format of the competition

The International Skiing Federation has messed with Sunday’s 10 km traditional competition format with the work, because first the competition was changed from pursuit on Wednesday to joint start and back to pursuit on Friday.

Read also: Finland’s head coach strongly criticizes the International Ski Federation: “Organizations are not taken care of until the very end”

– Fortunately, with a joint rebellion, we were able to change it back to a chase. I believe that it is more difficult to ski so that the sprinters do not benefit as much. When we start with small differences, it will be a sweet race, Pärmäkoski said.

– There are rapid descents, and when there are almost a hundred men, it’s pretty wild. Of course, even now we go with small gaps, but maybe the chase will be a little easier and it will be safer in descents.

The track has had to be shortened from 3.3 kilometers to 2.5 kilometers. However, that includes the head coach Teemu Pasanen including a long piece of work, so both the women’s and men’s overall competition will probably see a lot of changes.

Toni Roposen thinks that Niskanen and Pärmäkoski are in very good positions. Sprint race winner Nadine Fähndrich is a good traditional skier, but the Finns are most likely in their sights Frida Karlsson and Anne Kjersti Kalvå mixed Tiril and Lotta Udnes Weng. Roponen has high expectations for Sunday.

– I believe that after the race there will be two Finnish women among the five, Roponen said.