Gianmoena and Costa win Italian championships

The Italian Nordic Combined Championships held in Predazzo on the weekend and ended with successes of Samuel Costa and Veronica Gianmoena.

Samuel Costa’s victory was built on a big margin after the jumping part but was in the roller skiing part, the South Tyrolean policeman showed he has an excellent pace also in this discipline. Costa completed the 10 km on the track in the time of 21:30.0 and beat veteran Alessandro Pittin by 12 seconds. In third place, Aaron Kostner crossed the finish line with a time behind of +1:41, followed by Manuel Maierhofer at +2:03, Raffaele Buzzi  +2:41 " and Lukas Runggaldier +2;05. Youngster Stefano Radovan claimed rank seven and crossed the finish line just two seconds later.

The women held their second Italian national championships after the category debuted last autumn. The best athletes came from the ski club Lavazè di Varena:  Veronica Gianmoena won the event and Annika Sieff was second.

Gianmoena preceded the 16-year-old Sieff by 16 seconds after the jumping event but in the course of the 5 km pursuit on the roller skis, the two women fought eye to eye. On the finish line, Veronica Gianmoena concluded with a time of 19:44.0 and celebrated her second consecutive Italian national title but won only 3 seconds ahead of Annika Sieff. The bronze went to Daniela Dejori, who finished with a delay of 59 seconds and then the two young Friulians Greta Pinzani and Martina Zanitzer were fourth and fifth.