In the middle of June, the roller skiing competition season in Latvia was opened with the Madona Cup in FIS status, where the participants competed in the classical style distance and sprint in free style, being also the first FIS competition in Europe this season. This time, not only adults and juniors participated, but also representatives of youth groups of all ages. On the other hand, during the week of “Jāņu” in Norway, the World Cup season began with the successful participation of four Latvian skiers, where Lauris Kaparkalējs achieved a great success, the Madonie celebrating his victory in the sprint in the junior competition.
Now it’s time to distribute the medal sets of the Latvian championship. As usual in previous years, this time the first stage of the national championship will take place on the track of the Cēsis Olympic Center, and the first sets of medals will be distributed in the usual short distances in both skiing styles with an interval start. This means that there are no changes in the competition program. The first day will be classic style, and the second day will be freestyle. Larger groups will have to do 10.4km (for men, juniors and young people of the V18 group) and 5.2km (for women, juniors and young women of the S18 group), which will also be FIS category groups, but the smallest ones (children from S10 and V10, as well as young S12 and V12) will travel 1.2 km.
Both day’s competitions will start at 10.00. On Saturday, the FIS group for women will start the competition with 5.2 km in the classic, but on Sunday the smallest ones – S10, V10, S12, V12 – will go on the track first, doing 1.2 km in free style.
So far, representatives of two countries have applied – Latvia and Lithuania. Two years ago, on the first day of the women’s competition, Kitija Auziņa did not leave any hope, but on the second day, Baiba Bendika was convincingly the first skater, avenging her loss on the first day in the classic. For men, Roberts Slotiņš was the best in the classics, but in a very intense battle, Aleksandrs Artūrs Lūle beat Lauri Kaparkalėju by 3 seconds. Last year, on the other hand, Bendika won both days for women, while Kaparkalējs was first in both distances for men, and in the freestyle he shared the first place with biathlete Edgar Misi. In the classics, too, Lauri was close to sharing the first place, as the Estonian Johannes Alevs lost to him by only 0.3 seconds. As in the previous two years, our two leaders – Raimo Vigants and Patricija Eidukas – will not participate.
In Saturday’s competition in the classic style, FIS group athletes will compete with the same FF Active Classic roller skis, similar to the World Cup, which is a novelty within the Latvian championship and will allow a fairly objective assessment of the comparison between the athletes.
