Otepää (EST): Wind leads to cancellation of Women's Mass Start
Jan 07, 2023·Nordic Combined
The Women’s Mass Start competition in Otepää (EST) had to be cancelled due to difficult wind conditions today.
Before the cancellation, an exciting Cross-Country competition took place in Tehvandi stadium, in which Norways Gyda Westvold Hansen took the lead.
Led by the top 3 of the overall World Cup, the athletes started together in the 5 km of the Tehvandi Stadium after the Assistant Race Director Jan Rune Grave gave the starting shot.
The current Best Skier and owner of the red bib, Ida Marie Hagen from Norway, lead most of the race, closely followed by Overall World Cup leader Gyda Westvold Hansen, Nathalie Armbruster from Germany, Austrian Lisa Hirner and Ema Volavsek from Slovenia.
During the last lap, the Norwegians managed to pull away, going in the home stretch together.
In a tight sprint Hansen prevailed against her team mate, reaching the finish line 0.7 sec earlier.
Ema Volavsek (+10.9 sec) placed third, ahead of Armbruster (+13.6 sec) and Hirner (+14 sec), who still had good chances on a podium position before the Ski Jumping part.
Unfortunately, strong wind made jumping impossible.
Since the PCR cannot be used for Mass Starts, the competition had to be cancelled.
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