Erik Valnes was fined 250 Swiss francs after qualifying for the Toblach freestyle sprint.
TOBLACH.
The opening of the Tour de Ski saw a special situation when Norway’s star skier Erik Valnes was fined after the Toblach sprint qualifying. The amount of the fine was 250 Swiss francs, or at the current exchange rate, just under 270 euros.
Norwegian sprint coach Arild Monsen explained the situation to Urheilu.
– He forgot to put the transponder, Monsen described.
Transponder refers to a timing device that is used to clock an athlete’s performance.
– Such a mistake shouldn’t happen, but now it happened, Monsen sneered.
Despite everything, Valnes was Fifth in the qualifier and made it to the next round. 27-year-old Valnes is an experienced athlete. He is the Olympic winner of the pair sprint from Beijing 2022 and the world champion from Oberstdorf 2021.
From the sprint, Valnes has the World Cup silver from Oberstdorf, from the side of traditional skiing.
Norway is missing the top three from last year’s overall competition at the Tour de Ski this year. Johannes Hösflot Kläbo and Simen Hegstad Krüger are on the sidelines due to illness. Hans Christer Holund ended his career last season.
However, Norway has enough width. This season, the men’s world cup has seen six different Norwegian men on the highest podium, including Valnes Ruka in the traditional sprint.
Valnes is now fourth in the World Cup. Monsen sees Valnes as having good opportunities to fight for the top positions in the Tour de Ski. Monsen hopes that Valnes could reach the top five in the overall competition.
– Everything will be open for the last climb, Monsen says of the exciting Tour.