Slovenia win Women's Team Sprint gold at Junior Worlds

Slovenia upgraded their women’s Team Sprint silver from 2025 to claim the first Nordic Combined gold medal of the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships in Lillehammer, Norway.

Teja Pavec, who won individual silver a year ago in Lake Placid, and Tia Malovrh, who won Team Sprint silver with Masa Likozar Brankovic last year, proved a potent combination on the hill and in the tracks.

Pavec, who has had eight top-20 finishes in the World Cup this season, jumped 96.5-meters for 124.8 points on the HS98 hill, with Malovrh soaring 97.0m (130.7 points) as the duo claimed a handsome lead of 44 seconds heading to the tracks.

Their closest challengers were Japan, with Yuzuki Kainuma’s 93.0m jump (121.7 points) bringing them up to second place after Yuzuka Fujiwara’s initial 80.0m effort.

The Japanese duo reduced the deficit by nearly nine seconds over the first three of the six 1.4km laps, but Slovenia maintained a consistent pace to retain a gap of more than 30 seconds throughout, taking victory in 21:43.4 with a winning margin of 32.5 seconds.

“We just wanted to enjoy the hill so we could do a good cross-country and we did it,” added Malovrh, 17. “It is just amazing.”

While Fujiwara also won Team Sprint silver with Hazuki Ikeda in 2024, it was a first Junior Worlds medal for Kainuma (JPN).

“I don’t have any medals so I am very happy to get a world medal today,” said the 18-year-old.

Earlier on the HS98 hill, Katharina Gruber (AUT, above), who became the youngest winner of a Nordic Combined World Cup event in Trondheim earlier this season, showed her class.

The 17-year-old went close to the hill record with a superb jump of 103.0-meters, the best by six meters, to earn 132.8 points.

But with team-mate Clara Mentil only managing 78.5m (85.2 points), Austria found themselves 50 seconds behind in third starting the cross-country, the same deficit as French duo Marion Droz Vincent and Romane Baud, with Italians Giada Delugan and Ludovica Del Bianco a further nine seconds back.

But the Italian pair swiftly caught and passed Austria and France to forge nearly 30 seconds clear by halfway in the fight for the final medal, and ultimately finished 23 seconds ahead of Gruber and Mentil, with the French duo edging Finland in a sprint finish for fifth.

“The jumping was so good today,” said Delugan. “On the skis it was not my best performance but I am still really happy.”

“The plan was just to go full gas and it was a pleasure to race with my friend Giada,” added Del Bianco.

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