| The Finnish team lost its prima for two races In the first race of the World Ski Championships, which began yesterday in Val di Fiemme (Italy), the Russian team opened the account of the medals won. At a distance of 15 km in the classic style with a mass start, Olga Zavyalova finished third. The gold medal was won by the season's leader, Norwegian Bente Skari, and the silver award went to Estonian Kristina Šmigun.
The opening day of the championship was marked by a scandal again related to doping. The leading Finnish skier Kaisa Varis, who was supposed to start in the “red” group, was disqualified for two races, having discovered an increased hemoglobin content in her blood - 16.4 mg per deciliter instead of the required 16 units. Representatives of the Finnish team have already stated that the minimal excess of the norm is most likely due to the fact that Varis was preparing for the championship in high altitude conditions. By the way, all of Varis’ previous tests done during the current season showed acceptable levels of red blood cells. Be that as it may, the bronze medalist of the world championship two years ago at a distance of 15 km “classic” had to come to terms with the verdict of the anti-doping commission.
In clear weather, 48 skiers took to the slope. Already on the third kilometer the dense group of participants broke up. It happened on the descent, Shmigun, Skari, Zavyalova were ahead, and the Norwegians Moen and Pedersen were a little behind them. Soon, one interesting episode occurred, which almost led to a fall. As she walked, Shmigun took a plastic bottle of water from the hands of one of the trainers standing on the track, drank the liquid and threw the container directly into the ski track, right under the feet of Skari, who was following behind. Only a brilliant reaction saved the Norwegian from stepping on the bottle, and Zavyalova managed to lift her ski. After a third of the distance, Moen, unable to keep up with the proposed pace, was forced to retire, and Pedersen was already 13 seconds behind the leading trio.
Zavyalova tried her best to keep up with the well-coordinated tandem of Shmigun - Skari, and yet she failed to stay close to the leaders. On the third five-kilometer lap, the Estonian and Norwegian picked up the pace and left the Russian behind them at a noticeable distance. For Zavyalova, the main thing now was to control the bulk of the skiers in order to stay in third position, which she did with success, receiving the first World Championship medal in her career. Everyone was waiting for Scary to finally make a breakthrough. This happened on a long descent, and one and a half kilometers before the finish, the iron Norwegian stopped feeling the breath of a hot Estonian girl behind her back. The Scandinavian skier showed a very good time, getting out of 40 minutes -39.49.9. Szmigun lost to her by 12.8 seconds, but was not at all upset about her second place, raising her arms victoriously at the finish line. As expected, Skari is in brilliant shape and it is extremely difficult to compete with her. Zavyalova, 55.8 seconds behind the leader, became third with a solid margin over the rest of her pursuers. Pedersen, who finished fourth, was separated from the Russian by exactly 26 seconds.
Our Liliya Vasilyeva also showed a good result. The 35-year-old athlete took 14th place, Marina Lazhskaya-Denisova took 21st position, and another representative of Russia, Ekaterina Likhanova, took 26th place. In addition to Moen, the Italian Sabina Valbusa also left the race, and the weakest of the participants was the Kyrgyz skier Svetlana Pankova, who managed to fall behind by more than 14 minutes.
The race turned out to be very spectacular. The organizers prepared the route perfectly. On some of its sections, racers could use six rows of ski tracks, and on the most difficult sections of the route there were at least three tracks. So no one interfered with anyone, there was complete freedom to overtake rivals. Today at the championship there is another mass start - a men's 30 km race in the classical style. Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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