From last Tuesday to Friday, for four days in five disciplines – super giant, alpine combined, giant slalom, slalom and parallel slalom – three youth and Master group mountain skiers competed. Last Saturday, the smallest U10 group had the only start. Then followed two holidays and preparation of the track for the FIS competition. This Tuesday, the last sixth stage of the prestigious Baltic Cup in Finland continued with the participation of juniors and adults, as part of the FIS competition, the medal winners of the Latvian junior championship were determined.
Adults also competed together with juniors. A total of nine countries were represented – Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Thailand. The competition for Latvian mountain skiers was mostly represented by representatives of Finland and Sweden. 61 alpine skiers competed for men, and 24 participants took to the start for women.
For men, 28-year-old Miks Zvejnieks had the best start out of eight Latvian athletes, who was the only one from Latvia who managed not only to enter the top 30, but also to be close to the top 10 – 12th place (+2.91 sec.). Tenth was a mere five hundredths of a second away. The second best result was shown by Mika’s younger brother, Jurģis Zvejnieks, who lost a little over five seconds (+8.23 sec.) to his brother in the sum of two races and earned gold in the national championship for juniors. Gustavs Ābele (+9.26 sec.), who took 36th place overall and a silver medal, spent a second more on both tracks. The vice-leader status after the first race among our juniors was lost by Roberts Kupčs, who in the end took 38th place (+10.99 sec.) and a bronze medal.
The winner Sirvio lost a quarter of a second in the sum of two races to the runner-up Samu Torsti, who has been in the top 20 at the Olympic Games and World Championships, and even once in the top 10 at the World Cup stage. The trio was completed this year at the world junior championship 8. Finn Jāko Tapanainens, who won a place in the super giant.
For women, there was only one representative of Latvia among the 24 participants – Helen Ārenpreis, who showed the 10th result (+7.19), doing better in the second run than in the first and earning gold in the junior championship. There were nine Finns in front, but all the Swedes remained behind the Latvian. Today, Helena got both races equally well, the winner (again Pikalainen) lost 5.66 seconds, which gave her 9th place.
Miks Zvejnieks also took ninth place on the second day, although in a much bigger competition, ahead of more than 50 mountain skiers, but the winner, who this time was Torsti, actually lost the same amount – 3 seconds. Jurģis Zvejnieks took the 32nd place again (+_8.67 sec.), and Roberts Kupčs was again close behind him – the 35th place (+9.37 sec.).
Resources used:
Latvian Skiing Federation | infoski.lv
