Bendi and Tiirmaa win Estonian national championships

Annemarii Bendi and Karl-August Tiirmaa were the winners of the Estonian national championships held in Otepää on the Easter weekend.

While Annemarii Bendi captured the pole position of her race with a jump of 85.5 metres and put a substantial distance of one minute and 30 seconds between her and pursuer and Youth Cup overall winner Triinu Hausenberg, 17-year-old Kevin Maltsev lead the race in the men’s category with a jump of 95 metres. He had a 10-second head start on ski jumping veteran Kaarel Nurmsalu (94.5 m).

While Bendi also set the fastest skiing time of 16:21 for the 5 km, it was Karl August Tiirmaa, who proved to be the fastest man on the 10 km track in the men’s race. Tiirmaa started from the fifth position and had a whopping 53-second advantage on runner-up Kail Piho at the finish line, for whom the competition was the last of his career. Brother Han Hendrik Piho claimed the third rank, +54 seconds after Tiirmaa.

Markus Kägu became junior champion ahead of Karel Rammo and Hanno-Henri Reidolf. In the ladies’ category, Triinu Hausenberg defended her second place clearly against Merilis Kuuk, who finished third (+6:24).