Nadine Fähndrich starts the World Cup season with a 5th place in the classic sprint in Ruka, Finland.
29.11.2025, 13:19
29.11.2025, 14:28
SDA
Nadine Fähndrich is in good form at the start of the Olympic season. After a 10th place in the prologue, the World Championship bronze medallist qualified for the final with aplomb. There, however, she had no chance against a Scandinavian superiority.
For the first time since the corona pandemic, it was not one of the usually superior Swedes who won the sprint in northern Finland, but Norway's Kristine Skistad. She outdid the three Swedes Jonna Sundling, Maja Dahlqvist and Johanna Hagström. Behind them, Fähndrich was the best of the rest in fifth place.
Lea Fischer in third place and Anja Weber in fourth place in their quarter-finals, on the other hand, failed in the first knockout round, but all finished in the top 20 and thus fulfilled half of the Olympic standard.
In the men's event, the Swiss also had it with the 3rd places. With Janik Riebli, Valerio Grond and Isai Näff, all three Swiss athletes who reached the quarter-finals missed out on the semi-finals by one position. For Riebli in particular, who had finished sixth in the prologue and 13th in the final ranking, and Grond, the elimination in the quarter-finals is a slight disappointment, even though they are stronger in the skating technique. Grond was just six hundredths short of advancing as the lucky loser.
As usual, victory went to sprint dominator Johannes Klaebo, who triumphed for the 99th time in the World Cup, while the Norwegians took the entire podium.
