Amelie Wenger-Reymond continues dominating the Telemark World Cup
Feb 08, 2020·Telemark
The Telemark World Cup circuit moved to Rjukan, Norway this week. Not only does Rjukan offer beautiful landscapes and a great race slope - it is also the home of Telemark skiing. Three races were been held in Norway, two Sprint Races on the 6th and 7th of February and one Parallel Race on the last day, the 8th of February.
On Thursday the first of two two sprints was held. Despite heavy winds and cold temperatures, it turned out to be an exciting race. Holding on to her previous outstanding performances Switzerland’s Amelie Wenger-Reymond took the gold medal again followed by Great Britain’s Jasmin Taylor and France’s Argeline Tan Bouquet.
Official results Women´s Sprint 6th February 2020
In the men’s race the podium was once more dominated by the Swiss. After laying down the second fastest first run, Slovenian Jure Ales couldn´t hold on to his place and ended up on 4th place after the second run. So it was once more Switzerland’s Bastian Dayer taking the gold medal, followed by his teammates Stefan Matter and Nicolas Michel taking the silver and bronze medals.
Official results Men´s Sprint 6th February 2020
The second day of racing in Rjukan turned out to be a super sunny and clear day. On the women´s side it was once more Switzerlands Amelie Wenger-Reymond racing on first place in both runs. Wenger-Reymond was followed by Germany´s Johanna Holzmann and Jasmin Taylor from Great Britain in the first run. Holzmann was unable to ski clean in the second run, dropping to fifth place. Taking her place was Frenchwoman Argeline Tan Bouquet who skied into second place followed by Taylor taking the bronze medal.
Official results Women´s Sprint 7th February 2020
On men´s side it was once more Switzerlands Dayer taking the gold medal and his fourth victory in this still young season 2019/20. Dayer was followed closely by his teammate Nicolas Michel, only 0,70 second behind. Slovenian Jure Ales raced to third place.
Official results Men´s Sprint 7th February 2020
On the third and last day the most exciting discipline in Telemark racing took place: the Parallel Sprint. Both women and men have first to qualify for the final bracket, placed according to their qualifying times. On women´s side it was Wenger-Reymondy taking the best qualifying position, followed by Norway’s Kaja Bjoernstad Konow, and Switzerland´s Beatrice Zimmermann.
Wenger-Reymond made her way to the 1/2 final, beating Jasmin Taylor (GBR), moving her into the final and putting Taylor forward for the small final with the opportunity of picking up a bronze.
Fellow Swiss teammate Zimmermann came up against the 19 year old Norwegian, Konow in the other 1/2 final. Zimmerman was just able to edge out the crowd favorite Konow after a closely fought battle to the finish line.
In the small final, Taylor raced Konow in the fight for the bronze medal. Both ladies fought hard but Konow edged ahead of Taylor in the skate to claim her first FIS Telemark World Cup podium.
The final took place between the two Swiss - overall World Cup leader Wenger-Reymond and her teammate Zimmermann. Wenger-Reymond once again showed her dominance over the ladies field by claiming the win, making it her third consecutive victory in Rjukan.
Official results Women´s Parallel 8th February 2020
Following the conclusion of the qualification race, Switzerland’s Bastien Dayer finished 0.10 ahead of Germany’s Jonas Schmid and fellow Swiss racer Stefan Matter.
However in the 1/4 final, Dayer, winner of the previous two races, failed to pass Slovenia’s Jure Ales on the skating section. Ales later went through to race the leading Norwegian Jacob Alveberg and knocked him out, carrying on into the final - leaving Alveberg in the small final.
Alveberg was met in the small final by the experienced Swiss racer Stefan Matter. Although both racers were in a dead tie at the jump, Matter took a small advantage and went first into the rap (360 degree banked turn) and led the young Norwegian in the skating section to take the bronze medal.
In the final we witnessed a super fight between Jonas Schmid and Jure Ales which saw both men level until the very end - resulting in a photo finish. Ales beat Schmid by the narrowest of margins to take his first victory of the season in what was a spectacular final showdown between the Slovenian and German racers.
