Dazzling Dresden City Sprint

In the heart of Germanys city of Dresden, the robotron Ski Arena, the FIS Cross-Country family opened the 3rd period of the 2019/20 calendar. Along the Elbe river, a 650m long course was the set up for todays individual sprints.

With the impressive old city part as a backdrop, the FIS Cross-Country athletes were welcomed by the cheering crowd and were ready to perform at their best in spectacular heats. The promising Swedish team was set for the quarter finals with a total of eight athletes. Svahn, Dahlqvist and Soemskar made it to the finals where they raced against Laurien van der Graaff from Switzerland, Anamarija Lampic from Slovenia and Sophie Caldwell from the USA. The women's final heat remained focused and concentrated as the narrow turns in the course had to be treated with care in order to avoid interactions with the contenders. Lampic who had won the qualification chased after young Linn Svahn who was supported by Dahlqvist in the final stretch.

The Swedish plan worked out perfectly as Svahn crossed the finish line first, followed by Lampic and Dahlqvist - taking the decision on a photo finish. Sophie Caldwell misses the podium by 0.12 seconds and takes the 4th rank before Soemskar and van der Graaff.

The FIS Cross-Country family welcomed 5 rookies to the World Cup in todays competitions. A fantastic first World Cup appearance was shown by the 25-year old Norwegian Anikken Gjerde Alnaes who finishes the competitions on a great 8th position.

The fight for the top spots in the mens race meant to show stable performances and to remain focussed throughout the heats to stay out of the trouble that occurred especially in the 180° turn of the challenging Dresden Sprint course.

Lucas Chanavat from France once more kept his nerves and remained controlled all the way from leading the qualification to the final heat. The French sprint expert who was involved in a unlucky crash last year made up those events today by winning the Sprint +0.61 seconds ahead of last years winner Sindre Bjoernestad Skar from Norway. A long awaited podium for the Swedish men was taken by Johan Haeggstroem only 0.08 seconds before unlucky fourth Paal Troean Aune from Norway. For Johan Haeggstroem, it was the first individual World Cup podium in the World Cup!

Same as in the womens results, the best male rookie of the day is Harald Astrup Arnesen from Norway who races to the 8th rank in his first World Cup appearance.