SX race number two of Idre Fjäll TRE in the books
Jan 23, 2021·Ski Cross
After the “warm-up” round at the 600m straight sprint competition on Wednesday, ski cross athletes got to battle the full course here in Sweden’s Idre Fjäll on Saturday. And let us tell you, it was nothing short of excitement until the very last millimetre of the course, as many heats got decided by photo finish results. That’s how tight it got at the bottom section of the course.
Alizee Baron back on top
The two French athletes Marielle Berger-Sabbatel and Alizee Baron got into the women’s big final, together with Austria’s Katrin Ofner and Wednesday’s winner Fanny Smith (SUI).
Smith took an explosive start out of the gate, getting into the lead just ahead of the two French Baron and Berger-Sabbatel with the Austrian Ofner sitting in fourth. But, as seen throughout the entire competition of men and women on Saturday, that was not the last word spoken as for the final ranking.
Especially the bottom part of the course changed everything in almost every heat of the day. That way, Baron took one of the jumps to her advantage, gaining enough speed to pass Smith on the straight finish section and now leading the heat.
And it was not until the final roller section that Marielle Berger-Sabbatel was able to take the speed of each roller, getting quicker and quicker to finally also pass Smith and getting super close to Baron, when in a split second it seemed like the team mates crossed the finish line in the very same moment. It was not until the official photo finish when it was clear that Baron was the first crossing the finish line first.
That way, the end result was 1-2 for France with Alizee Baron winning her competition since her comeback after an injury, taking her out for the entire season 2019/20, Berger-Sabbatel coming in second and claiming a podium after almost a one-year-break and Wednesday’s winner Fanny Smith rounding out the podium.
An emotional Alizee Baron commented after the race: “It’s so crazy! I am so happy! My last win was actually in Sweden, like five years ago and I am just so relieved. It was a big fight today, especially for the legs, because the course is so long. And I just want to thank the entire French team, it feels like the best day…!”
Reece Howden unstoppable
The men’s big final had Canada’s World Cup leader Reece Howden in the gate, together with Swiss veteran Jonas Lenherr and surprisingly two rookies, Niklas Bachsleitner from Germany and Italy’s Simone Deromedis.
Lenherr was super quick out of the start gate, securing first position with quite the margin ahead of Reece Howden, while Bachsleitner and Deromedis were battling it out for third and fourth position until a bank, which helped the Italian secure the third spot of the heat.
And while for the most of the heat it seemed that the positions would stay the same, it was again not until the very last meters of the finish section, where everything was decided. And that was Howden gaining enough speed to pass Lenherr, Deromedis gaining more and more speed, but also from the very back, the German Bachsleitner came in like a rocket with all three athletes after Howden passing the finish line seemingly at the same moment.
Again, it was not until the photo finish that the official result was clear and that was declaring Howden as winner, Lenherr in second and Bachsleitner claiming his maiden podium in third position.
What a breathtaking final!
“Today I took my chance and I made a change of tactic. Usually, I try to lead right from the start and stay out in front the whole race, but that was not going to get me into the big final today, so I chose to hang back, buy my time, give my legs a little bit of a break and then go 110% after that negative turn. Today was about racing, not about leading and I am really happy with my outcome, it couldn’t have been any better,” a very emotional and happy Reece Howden said in the finish.
World Cup leader after Saturday’s competition on the men’s side is Reece Howden (CAN) with a total of 370 points ahead of Ryan Regez (SUI) with 261 points and Jonas Lenherr (SUI) with 238 points.
On the women’s side, Fanny Smith managed to enlarge her margin to 485 points ahead of Marielle Thompson (CAN) with 318 points and Marielle Berger-Sabbatel sitting in third with 269 points.
We are ready for another competition day to round up the Idre Fjäll TRE here in Sweden with three competitions in five days. We will start on Sunday, January 24, at 13:00 CET sharp.
WATCH LIVE
Sunday, Jan 24, at 13:00 CET:
TV: Arena 4 (Hungary), Z Extra (The Netherlands), SVT 2 (Sweden),
RTS2 (Switzerland)
Livestream: FIS Freestyle Youtube channel (please see countries where the livestream is going to be available HERE), Eurosport Player (Europe), CBC Sports Streaming (Canada), NBC
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