Magdalena Olsson (Sweden) and Jørgen Bakrid (Norway) are the 2024 SkiO World Cup Champions and both finished second today, with Bakrid just one second behind Finland's Ebert Toivonen. The women's race was won by local athlete Daisy Coudre Schneider.
Sweden's Ella Thuresson was the early leader in the women's race over 8.8km, which was held on a calm and cloudy day, with snow starting to disappear in open areas and quite muddy elsewhere. As with any pursuit, good route selection was the key to success, and in some sections there were several alternative routes on the track, with many small footpaths on moderately hilly terrain.
Daisy Coudre Schneider always chose the best routes and skated strongly, but her closest challengers made many small mistakes. “I've always had problems with the map holders coming loose,” she said. “But the race was fun. Today I was very careful not to lose focus on the map. In the World Championship race I was so focused on the result that I got upset when things didn't go well. But here I was able to concentrate more on my performance.'' She finished with a 0.42 point lead over Magdalena Olsson of Sweden, with yesterday's winner Anna Ulbensoen of Norway in third place. Ulvensøen).
Photo: Reigo Thierwald
A very consistent young athlete, Maria Hoskala (Finland) won the gold medal at the U-23 World Championships, silver went to Norway's Arsne Havengen and bronze went to Ella Turesson.
Ebert Toivonen, who started two minutes after Bakrid, was 17 seconds behind Bakrid at the penultimate control, but chose a much faster track route until the final control, encouraged by his Finnish teammate. Lasted a very long sprint. He outscored Bakrid by just one second. In the early stages of the race, Niklas Ekström, who had already won two gold medals, seemed most likely to beat Bakrid's time, but he fell away in the closing stages and finished fourth. Third place went to fellow Finnish Aapo Vippola, 1.03 behind the winner.
Photo: Reigo Thierwald
This was the 26-year-old Toivonen's first World Cup victory. “His legs started shaking a little bit in the aisle of the arena when he heard second place,” he said. “But after that I stayed calm and didn’t make any mistakes. When I heard my teammates screaming, I knew there was something here and I gave it my all!”
Niklas Ekström finished fourth, securing the gold medal at the U-23 World Championships. The silver went to Estonia's Ole Ilmar Jama, and the bronze went to Finland's Tuomas Outinen.
This marks the end of the 2024 international SkiO season, but both rounds were not blessed with overall optimal skiing conditions. The Estonian organizer had to work hard first to move the sprint venue and then to prepare a suitable course for the three races. The course was carefully planned and extremely challenging, and the organizing team can look back on his three-day competition as very successful.
Main results in middle distance
woman
- Daisy Kudre Schneider EST 49:05
- Magdalena Olsson SWE + 0.42
- Anna Urbensoen NOR + 2.22
- Maria Hoskari FIN + 3.44
- Arsne Havengen NOR + 4.02
- Sari Varanen FIN + 4.30
male
- Ebert Toivonen FIN 53:26
- Jorgen Bakrid NOR + 0.01
- Apo Vippola FIN + 1.03
- Niklas Ekström FIN + 1.50
- Stanimir Belomadev BUL + 2.15
- Henrik Fredriksen Aas NOR + 2.28