By Lukas Pigott
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For the final sprint of Period 1 of World Cup racing, Davos played host to a late afternoon of thrilling racing. Two laps of a fast course with a false flat, a hill, and an icy corner would be the stage for several rounds of technical and tactical racing.
Despite the organizers’ best efforts to soften up the snow on the corner, it was clearly very icy, causing numerous casualties in the men’s races. While the women largely made it through unscathed, some athletes definitely managed it better than others. Despite this corner being one of the main talking points on the day, the strongest skiers eventually prevailed despite the looming threat of the icy slopes of southeastern Switzerland.
The day started with the qualification round, out of which three American women advanced to the heats. Julia Kern, Jessie Diggins, and Alayna Sonnesyn (Team Birkie) all made the top-30 cutoff, while Rossie Brennan just missed out on a spot in the quarterfinal by finishing 33rd, only 0.24 outside the heats. Luci Anderson (Team Birkie), Kate Oldham, and Erin Bianco (BSF) finished 41st, 48th, and 53rd, respectively.
Diggins chose the first quarterfinal heat today, a departure from her standard practice the last several seasons of choosing heat five. This left her up against the two pre-race favorites Jonna Sundling (Sweden) and Kristine Stavås Skistad (Norway). With both of them being amongst the fastest finishers, the field needed to keep the pace up for a chance of getting one of the lucky loser spots. Sundling, however, took control of the race, setting a steady tempo but one that ultimately would not make for any lucky losers from heat one.
With Sundling and Skistad finishing one–two in the heat to secure direct places to the semifinals, Diggins would not get the chance to continue racing today when she finished in third.
After the race, Diggins said that she felt that she didn’t feel like she had the “top end speed” needed on a fast course like the one in Davos.
Diggins accepted that this was the case, adding, “I would honestly be pretty shocked if I did. But I am proud of going out there and executing my plan to the best of my ability. I just needed to have carried more speed into that finishing stretch.”
In the third heat Julia Kern was up against a strong-looking Laura Gimmler (Germany) and an in-form Maja Dahlqvist (Sweden). Exiting the final corner after the first lap she got boxed in on the inside, losing momentum and having to chase back on the famous false flat out of the stadium.
“I’m proud of making a detailed race plan, and starting faster in the qualifier today!” she said after her race. “I felt much more like myself out there today, and played the tactical game, with some good moves, and unfortunate outcomes with an obstruction by another athlete.”
She ended her heat in fourth and the day in 16th overall, one place behind her team sprint silver-medal teammate from the World Championships last season, Diggins.
In the fourth quarterfinal heat Alayna Sonnesyn was up against Jasmi Joensuu (Finland), who controlled the heat. Gina del Rio (Andorra) edged out last year’s sprinting sensation Coletta Rydzek (Germany) for the final spot in the semifinals from this heat.
On the final corner in the first semifinal Sundling led, with home favorite Nadine Fähndrich (Switzerland) and Skistad following. Skistad was carrying considerably more speed, and tried to go on the inside of Fähndrich. When Fähndrich held her line, Skistad came in from the inside and knocked her skis. While they both stayed upright this resulted in Fähndrich losing momentum and Skistad getting a yellow card, her second of the season, and thus being relegated.
This episode marked the continuation of Skistad’s season-long saga to gain a second yellow card, occasionally clumsily so. In the Norwegian’s first race of the season, the sprint in Beitostølen, she was handed a yellow card. Skistad then consequently told the media that she would try to get a yellow card the next day. Since she didn’t care about her result in the next race, she was fine about getting disqualified. Two yellow cards means disqualification, but more importantly for Skistad, it means that you don’t carry a yellow card with you any more.
[I’m gonna use my law degree and experience as a criminal defense attorney here to observe that publicly announcing in advance your intention to commit a crime is usually a bad idea. —Ed.]
In the race the next day, a classic interval-start race, Skistad decided to brazenly skate in the finishing straight, clearly trying to get a yellow card. This unsurprisingly backfired, as she got a direct DSQ for unsportsmanlike behavior instead of a second yellow card.
This meant that Skistad carried a yellow card into the World Cup season, and today lost out on a chance to fight for the win. I’m not sure she views it this way, but at least she finally got rid of her yellow card.
In the final Sundling tried to ski the race “like a prologue and see what happens,” she told media afterwards. On the final hill it looked like she was going to ski away from everyone, but Mathilde Myhrvold (Norway) managed to limit the gap. Going into the final straight Sundling had a few ski lengths on Myhrvold, but Myhrvold hadn’t given up quite yet. Showcasing her incredible finish, she almost caught up to Sundling.
In the end Sundling took the win with 0.08 seconds ahead of Myhrvold. Nadine Fähndrich, who made it through as a lucky loser despite Skistad’s attempts at getting rid of her yellow card, finished a strong third. Dahlqvist, Linn Svahn (Sweden), and Gimmler, in that order, rounded out the final heat.
Talking to Norwegian Viaplay after the race Myhrvold said, “It’s really cool to have such a good day, but it’s a little irritating to be so close.”
“She’s good” was what she had to say about Sundling.
Sundling was possibly even more understated, saying that all she knew for sure was that she was going to go to the finish line. The question was just what place she would get. “Forward with the foot and hope for the best” was her lunge tactic today, which delivered her her second win so far in Davos as well as a growing reputation for being the one to beat in skate sprinting.
After the race Kern said, “I’m excited to take this fresher energy into tomorrow, and the endurance base I feel to build on my momentum in a distance race and see what happens tomorrow.”
She will be joined on the start line for tomorrow’s 10-kilometer interval-start skate by Alayna Sonnesyn, Kate Oldham, Kendall Kramer, Rosie Brennan, Luci Anderson, Jessie Diggins, and Erin Bianco.
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