Idre Fjäll ready for second of three ski cross competitions
Jan 22, 2021·Ski Cross
After some heavy snowfall between the first competition of the Idre Fjäll TRE on Wednesday and the first of back-to-back competitions on Saturday, the organizing committee of Idre had done a tremendous job on maintaining the entire course and have it ready for race time.
Athletes were excited after Wednesday’s first-ever straight sprint of 600m, but are now ready to race the whole course including its banks, turns, rollers, step-ups, jumps and negative turns. It is well known that the ski cross course in Idre is very technical and demanding and always presents excellent opportunities for passing, overtaking and some real action.
Unfortunately, due to the weather challenges so far, none of the qualifications could be held, therefore the Jury decided to go with time trial qualifications on Saturday at 10:45 CET for men and 11:50 CET for women before the finals, which are set for 13:00 CET. As usually, you will be able to follow the qualies via FIS App or via Live scoring on our website.
We must also add that the races here are of high importance to the athletes, since they need to secure their World Championship tickets for the upcoming major event in this very same resort, Idre Fjäll, on February 13, 2021.
Idre has agreed to step in and host the World Champs after the originally scheduled FIS Freestyle Ski, Freeski and Snowboard World Championships in Zhangjiakou (CHN) were cancelled earlier this season due to the pandemic.
Who to watch?
Needless to say, that on the women’s side we need to have a very close look on Fanny Smith’s performance, as she has a total of seven podiums already on this course, including three wins, two second places and three third places. Also, ever since Wednesday, the Swiss athlete has tied the record of most wins, 26 in total, which was set by France’s Ophelie David.
So, now Smith has the chance to set an all-new record for most wins by a female or male athlete – will she make history this weekend? Also being currently World Cup leader, after three wins and one second place already this season, Smith seems to be on fire.
Of course, World Champion Marielle Thompson (CAN) will try to stop Smith from breaking this record and will be in for a podium battle. Especially, since The FIS Ski Cross World Championships will be held at the same venue in a couple of weeks from now, Thompson will make sure to perform well at this course and prepare to defend her title come February 11. She also holds two wins, three second places and one third place here in Idre, which shows that she is able to perform well on this course.
Will Viktor Andersson win on home soil?
The Swedish athlete managed to grab second place on Wednesday’s sprint competition in a very tight battle with two Frenchmen Bastien Midol, who won in the end, and World Champion Francois Place.
Andersson proved to be in good shape this season after claiming one victory in Arosa (SUI) earlier this season, so he will be for sure in an attacking mode for the races on the weekend.
Bastien Midol managed to get back onto the top of the podium after some time of being absent from it, but the tall Frenchman seemed to have regained his ski cross powers, maybe just in right time for the World Championships as well?!
Speaking of World Champions, Francois Place grabbed his second podium spot at Wednesday’s competition, which also shows that the World Champion himself is on fire and in shape just right in time to defend his title. Will he be in the podium battle on the weekend as well?
We should also not forget about World Cup leader Reece Howden from Canada, who managed to win the small final on Wednesday and defended his top spot position in the Cup standings. Will he be able to put down the fastest run on Saturday?
There is only one way to find out – tune in and see, who will be the best on Idre’s big, fast and technical course.
WATCH LIVE
Saturday, January 23 at 13:00 CET:
TV: ORF Sport+ (Austria), Arena 4 (Hungary), Zextra (The Netherlands), RTS 2 (Switzerland)
Livestream: FIS Freestyle Youtube channel (please see countries where the livestream is going to be available HERE), CBC Sports Streaming (Canada), SVT Play (Sweden), NBCSN (USA)
QUICK LINKS
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