February 18, 10:44 am
Added on February 18, 13:24
The Latvian women’s skiing duo with Kitija Auzina and Patricija Eidukas rewrote the history of Latvian skiing on Wednesday, qualifying for the final in the team sprint competition at the Olympic Games for the first time. The Latvian team finished the competition in 13th place. The Latvian men’s team did not enter the final.
The favorites were the Swedes who finished in 20 minutes and 29.99 seconds. The silver went to the Swiss, who were 1.40 seconds behind the winners, but the bronze went to Germany, who narrowly left Norway without medals.
Auziņa started the competition in the Latvian team, but the national team leader Eiduka crossed the finish line. Latvians were one minute and 26.06 seconds behind the winners.
Eiduka skis to the finish of the race
Latvian sportswomen showed the 12th fastest result in the qualification, qualifying for the final competition for the first time.
Eiduka covered the distance in three minutes and 21.42 seconds, which was the sixth fastest time among all female athletes. Aužina had the 32nd fastest result (three minutes and 38.48 seconds). In general, the Latvians lost 29.96 seconds to the leaders.
Eiduka skis to the finish of the qualification
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26 teams start the competition, of which the fastest 15 will qualify for the final.
In the men’s competition, Latvia was represented by Lauris Kaparkalējs and Niks Saulītis, who replaced Raimo Vīganta in the protocol only shortly before the start. The athletes later discovered that Wiegants could not compete due to health problems.
The Norwegian team won gold in the men’s competition, thus Johannes Klebo became a ten-time Olympic champion.
Klebo completed the final together with Einar Hedegard in 18 minutes and 28.9 seconds, 1.4 seconds ahead of Americans Ben Ogden and Gas Schumacher. The bronze medals were won by the home team Elia Barps and Federico Pellegrino, who were 3.3 seconds behind the winners.
Kaparkalējs and Saulītis showed the 34th and 36th fastest results, respectively, reaching the finish line in three minutes and less than three seconds. Kaparkalējs and Saulītis took 17th place in the competition overall.
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