For junior and master mountain skiers, the parallel slalom was the fifth and at the same time the last discipline in this season’s Baltic Cup. Previously, representatives of these groups had competed in super-giant, alpine combined, giant slalom and slalom. Now it was the turn of the exciting parallel slalom, where the qualifiers were first held, identifying the top eight in each group, who then went on to compete head-to-head in the elimination rounds, which began with the quarter-finals. In the elimination rounds, two races had to be done, one on one track, the other on the other track. If the participants of the duel each have a victory, then the one who has a better time difference in the total of both tracks went on.
In the previous days, in the youth groups, each Baltic country got the first place, with Estonia standing out with the most victories. The same trend continued in the parallel slalom. Just as in the slalom on Thursday, in the parallel slalom, Estonians have three victories, Latvia has two first places, and Lithuania has one top success.
In the master group, Ieva Lagzdiņa got the second victory, beating Laura Baumani in the final, while Jeļena Brokāne got the third place without a fight in the small final, as three women competed. Tom Ilej’s great winning streak was interrupted for the men, as Tom posted the 5th time in qualifying, two hundredths of a second short of the semi-finals, or elimination round, because due to the number of participants in the Master group, the elimination rounds began with the semi-finals, where the top four qualified. In the final, Kaspars Klapkalns did not leave Gints Gritāns with any hope, but in the small final Reinis Sauers was faster than Krišjānis Lamberts.
In the U16 group, there were no surprises for the boys and the convincing leaders from Estonia – twin brothers Messila – fought with each other in the final, with Markus winning and Mika taking second place. In the fight for third place and the best status among Latvians, Pēteris Pauls Prancāns beat Nilas Neo Trapāns. The third Latvian was Miks Mazais, who took 5th place.
For girls, some of the leaders in this group did not start, including Emma Tammemegi from Estonia and Kristiāna Hartmane from Latvia. Of the 11 participants, ten were Latvian alpine skiers and only one was Estonian, and it was this sole representative of Estonia, Nora Roneta, who also won, prevailing in the final over the best representative of Latvia, Darta Jaundzemi. The third place was won by Loretta Reiter, who in the small final beat the surprise author Elizabeta Reinhardi, who entered the quarter-finals as the final eighth in the qualification, where, due to the fall of Sofia Feodorova, the best time of the qualification, she went on to the semi-finals.
In the U14 group for boys, our neighbors met in the final, the Lithuanian Martin Seppa won another victory, while the Estonian Laurit Laukas, who previously won two third places, achieved his best result in this stage of the Baltic Cup with the second place. In the small final, Artūrs Ameriks overtook Ronija Dorša to determine the best Latvian representative. In the qualification, Rihards Hartmanis, the best Latvian, finished 6th and was the third of our team.
For girls U14, Heidija Ciagune returned to the honor of the winner after a failure in the slalom. She faced fierce competition in the finals, at least in the first race, from Justine Baumane, who thus became the only one in her group who managed to enter the top three in all five disciplines. In the small final, Estonian Johanna Lehmets left no hope for Hanna Kronberga, who earned bronze at the national championship, who eliminated Daniela Anna Livčani, who showed the 3rd time in the qualification, from further battles in the quarterfinals.
In the U12 group, in the final, Patrik Ciagun tried, but this time could not do anything to his fiercest competitor Andre Sarri from Estonia, so the Estonian finished this Baltic Cup in Pihe with three wins and two second places, and Ciagun – with two wins and three second places. On the last day, Edvards Kapteinis-Veits, who showed the fifth time in the qualification, provided the sweet dish again on the last day, who first dealt with one of the two Karls (Bračka) in the quarter-finals, and with the other (Kokar) in the small final, winning the third place.
The Estonian winning streak was interrupted for the girls, as Elizabete Kürberga, who won the first three places, who showed the fastest time in the qualification, made a mistake in the quarter-finals and was disqualified, thus Aleksandra Trapanai reached the semi-finals, who lost third place to Nicolas Grínberga in the small final, both of them taking third and second place respectively in the LČ in the test. Meanwhile, the second victory in the overall classification was achieved by repeating the success of the super giant, and Emilija Kliestas earned another gold in the national championship.
On Saturday, the first half of the 6th stage of the Baltic Cup will end with the giant slalom of the U10 group.
Resources used:
Latvian Skiing Federation | infoski.lv
