Although the season turned out to be good and successful, during the development period there is also a lot to work on for a higher result, improving technical capabilities, athletes’ physical preparation and starting technique, said Shaicans. He is pleased with the past season, which already started unexpectedly well.
Coach Zintis Šaicāns about the season of the Latvian luge team
“The first stages – the first medals, the best world championship in history, the richest in medals. [Pēdējā] Three gold medals at the Sigulda stage – what more could you wish for. Of course, I also wanted to win gold in the team relay,” said Shaicans. “Really, the season was very successful, and it will be very difficult to repeat it, the bar was set extremely high, at abnormal heights. Now everything will be expressed by the nuances, the smallest details that will come together to contribute to an even better and higher result.”
Shaicans would like to experience an even more successful next season, and he will continue to work for the national team at least until the 2026 Winter Olympics. The coach has no doubts that the team is on the right track, and in the future they will have to dot the i’s in order to better prepare for the Olympic season.
This season, the sledders are still waiting for the start of the Latvian championship, but
the team will also look for other opportunities to develop and test the technique, because in the last stages of the World Cup, the athletes were fighting for higher places in the season standings, and it was not the best time for experiments.
“We will certainly continue to check the equipment in the future, because until the 17th [martā] we have ice available. We will certainly use all opportunities to continue developing,” emphasized Šaicāns.
Zinti Shaicans
Photo: Eddy Palen/LETA
In the successful last stage of the season, Šaicāns sees both the contribution of the athletes by completing the track well, and the team’s performance in improving the technique for Sunday’s races. Both Kristers Aparjod and Elina Ieva Vitola won on Sunday, and Kendija Aparjod also drove well until the mistake made, emphasized Shaicans. He admitted that the team had some mistakes in the relay, whereas the Germans passed the trickier parts of the track better and therefore won.
At the weekend, the first top forge award for Latvia was won by the crew of duo Mārtiņš Bots/Roberts Plūme, who ended the season in 3rd place in the World Cup overall ranking. An even better season finish was achieved by Aparjodas, who reached the second position, but Vitola was the best among women, ranking immediately behind the three laureates.
The biggest rise in the World Cup season’s standings is for solo riders – Aparjods and Vītola were the best in the Latvian team last year as well, but ranked only in 6th and 7th place, respectively.
As last year, Bots/Plūme are third, but they pleased with gold medals in the sprint at the world championship.
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2024-03-05 08:07:47
#Latvians #raised #bar #huge #height #luge #sports #Article
