Naeslund back on top and Regez with first season victory in Innichen
Dec 19, 2021·Ski Cross
What a beauty of a day in Innichen, South Tyrol on this Sunday noon it was to witness some excellent ski cross action underneath the magical Haunold at the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup 3 Zinnen Dolomites in Innichen.
After an intense program so far with 4 races in the past 9 days and two more to go, one today and one on Monday, ski cross athletes are really being challenged for their performances just before Christmas.
But we love to see double-racing-action and we definitely can’t get enough of that. But now to a little recap of what happened today…
Naeslund in a league of her own
For the big final of women, Brittany Phelan (CAN) and ongoing rivals Fanny Smith (SUI) and Sandra Naeslund (SWE) went into the start gate. Of course, there were supposed to be four women in the gate, however, Marielle Berger-Sabbatel from France crashed in the semi-final in during the battle for the entry ticket to the big final and was not able to compete in the big final. At this stage, it is not confirmed, how serious her injury is, but in any case, we are sending some major healing vibes to the French ski cross star.
World Champ Naeslund was once again super fast out of the start gate and seemed to have skis on fire, taking the lead very quick and creating a major gap of 0,71 seconds in the second interim time with her rival Smith behind and Phelan sitting in third.
The battle was therefore going on for second and third place between Smith and Phelan, where the Canadian was able to almost pass the Swiss in the final left turn, however Smith was able to get to the kicker faster and up in the air, she always is super fast, therefore kept the lead. But then, at the finish section of the course, the two would not give in and fight until the very end.
Finally, the finish result was the victory for Naeslund with an unbelievable margin of 2.14 seconds of a margin before Smith, who just with the tiniest margin of 0.02 seconds edged off Phelan into third.
“I saw already at the times of the quali yesterday that I was fast, but it’s always hard to keep it together in the race, but I had like always super fast skis and managed to pull off some really good skiing, so I am super happy,” Naeslund, who now has won four out of five races and has a total of 21 World Cup victories to her name, commented in the finish.
Ryan Regez grabs first season victory
For the big final of men, we had some really tall guys in the start gate. Ryan Regez (SUI), who should some really amazing skiing throughout the entire competition, very tall Frenchman Bastien Midol, Austria’s Tristan Takats and “big rig” Reece Howden (CAN).
Regez was able to secure the lead right after the start with Midol and Howden right behind him, while Austrian Tristan Takats was sitting in fourth.
The Swiss athlete seemed to choose the right lines for every element of the course, but Midol was literally on his tails, trying to use the right moment and to pass. Meanwhile, Takats waited for the left side turn, in which he managed to do all the passes in his previous heats to overtake Howden, which he did for a moment, but then slipped to low in the turn and Howden was back in third.
It got really close for Regez and Midol in the finish section, when they were literally neck-and-neck, but again the Swiss somehow generated more speed and finally crossed the finish line to grab his first season podium and victory and his 10th podium spot in his career so far.
A super emotional and moved to tears Regez commented in the finish: “I am sorry, I am a bit overwhelmed right now. This is a race I always wanted to win and I am really, really happy. It has been a difficult season; I have been winning three qualies and then just ended up messing up big in the heats. So, just bringing it down from the quali through the eight final and all the way to the final and then winning this, it’s unbelievable.”
World Cup leader on the women’s side of course is still Sandra Naeslund with now a total of 450 points and on the men’s side Terence Tchiknavorian with 297 points.
Tomorrow will be another chance for the podium, as we head into the second of back-to-back competitions here at the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup 3 Zinnen Dolomites in Innichen. We will go into finals at 11:30 CET for the final show before Christmas.
Don’t forget to tune in as a little break from all of that cookie baking, you’re all doing out there 😉
WATCH LIVE (subject to change)
Monday**, Dec 20** **at 11****:30 CET:**
Eurosport 1 (Asia), Eurosport 2 (Europe), ORF Sport + (Austria), CCTV Live (China), ESPN Star + (Latin America), Ziggo 14 (The Netherlands), V Sport 1 (Norway), VSV (Sweden), SRF 2, RSI LA2 (Switzerland), Rai Sport (Italy), CT Sport (Czech Republic), V Sport (Finland), L’Equipe (France), Polsat Sport Extra (Poland)
FIS Freestyle Youtube channel (geo-restricted, check countries where livestream will be available HERE), CBC Streaming (Canada), Viaplay (Denmark), skiandsnowboard.live (USA)
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