Russia’s Natalia Matveeva (l) on the podium final season at a World Cup skate sprint in Rybinsk, Russia, with Swedish winner Jennie Öberg and Switzerland’s Laurien van der Graaff in third. On Sunday in Beitostølen, Norway, Matveeva won a FIS traditional sprint soon after Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (not pictured) was disqualified. (Photograph: Fischer/NordicFocus)
For the 2nd time this weekend, a Norwegian skier was disqualified from an Global Ski Federation (FIS) race in Beitostølen, Norway, and missed out on a victory due to the fact of it.
Regardless of a robust opening to Sunday’s 1.2-kilometer classic sprint, in which she won the qualifier by 2.22 seconds more than Norwegian teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and topped every single heat thereafter, Maiken Caspersen Falla was ultimately at the hands of the jury by the finish of the final.
Norwegian teammates and close friends Maiken Caspersen Falla (l) and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg celebrate gold and silver, respectively, at the 2014 Olympic skate sprint in Sochi, Russia.
Dealing with off against Østberg, Russia’s 22-year-previous Polina Kovaleva — who was third in the qualifier (6.44 seconds behind Falla) — another Russian Natalia Matveeva, and two much more teammates, Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen and Barbro Kvåle, the 25-yr-outdated Falla ran into difficulties in the ultimate when she moved to alter tracks on a technical flip.
Due to the sharpness of the flip and site visitors all around her, Falla explained she had no choice but to ski more than her great good friend Østberg’s skis.
“I noticed that I [lower off] Ingvild in the bend, but what else could I have completed?” Falla said in a publish-race interview with Langrenn, in accordance to a translation. “I was either running up the back of Astrid or into Ingvild.”
While she finished first in the final, Falla was in the long run relegated to last since of the move. She didn’t regret her choice, telling NRK, “I would do it once again, because I did not have anywhere else to go.”
She additional that the DQ should give her some added fuel moving forward, particularly two weeks out from the World Cup opener in Kuusamo, Finland.
“It’s also bad to be disqualified” she informed Langrenn. “It was a single of best races I’ve accomplished in three or four years. I can use this as additional determination when I go [to the] World Cup.”
With Falla out, the girls’s sprint victory went to the 2nd racer across the line: Russia’s 29-year-outdated Matveeva, who finished 2nd in each her quarterfinal and semifinal. Skisport.ru mentioned classic isn’t usually Matveeva’s strength. In 2007, she won a World Cup skate sprint in Duesseldorf, Germany, and final season, she reached the World Cup podium for the very first time in 3 many years when she placed 2nd in a skate sprint in Rybinsk, Russia.
Regardless of the mishap with Falla, Østberg was two-tenths of a second from the win on Sunday, finishing just behind Matveeva in 2nd. Soon after reaching the last as a lucky loser from her semifinal, Jacobsen led out of the start off, but slipped back on the climbs and ended up two.9 seconds back in third. Kovaleva placed fourth (+8.three) and Kvåle was fifth (+twelve.one). The winner of last 12 months’s traditional sprint in Beitostølen, Kvåle, 23, was a fortunate loser twice above, narrowly advancing from both the quarterfinals and semifinals with quickly-sufficient times.
Final results: Qualifier | Heats
— Alex Kochon contributed reporting