Andreas Skoglund celebrates first Continental Cup victory in Lahti

Christian Deuschl seems to be able to deal with pretty much any hill. Also at the first Continental Cup event in Lahti the Austrian landed the longest jump of the day (97.0m, 127.3p) and started the cross-country race with bib number one, 15 seconds ahead of Norway’s Andreas Skoglund (96.5m, 123.5p.) and 20 seconds ahead of Matteo Baud from France (96.5m, 122.4p.). After having struggled a bit on the hill during the last few competitions, also Lars Ivar Skaarset showed a stronger performance (95.5m, 120.9p.) and was able to start the race 26 seconds behind Deuschl. Sakutaro Kobayashi (93.0m, 120.9p.) and Christian Frank (92.0m, 118.9p.) completed the top six after jumping.
Also the fact that strong cross-country skier Lars Buraas starting the race from rank 25, being 1:11 minutes behind (87.5m, 109.5p) promised an exciting race.

During the cross-country part it took Skoglund just one lap on the challenging course in Lahti to make up his disadvantage and take over the lead. From that point he skied a lonely race until crossing the finish line as the winner of Saturday’s competition. Behind him however, Buraas definitely met the expectations. He made up position by position until he reached Frenchman Baud, local hero Karhumaa and his teammate Skaarset. But also these three weren’t Buraas final destination. On the last lap he once again enlarged his pace und put a few meters between himself and his opponents, celebrating a very strong 2nd place (+25 seconds) with the fastest cross-country time of the day (26:10.6 minutes). Baud and Karhumaa stayed together until the very last meters, sprinting for the 3rd spot on the podium. In the end it was the Finnish athlete (+33.2 seconds), who was slightly ahead of Baud (+34.2 seconds), being super happy about the bronze position. Skaarset (+49.7 seconds) and Kasper Moen Flatla (+54.3 seconds) completed another outstanding Norwegian team result on rank five and six.