Sprint day at FIS Para Nordic World Championships

The third day of competition at the FIS Para Nordic World Ski Championships featured a an intense display of first-class skiing in the sprint competitions.

A milder day with plus temperatures and rain changed the surface of the track for the third day of competition racing started in mid-afternoon for all six classes in the qualifiers, semi-finals and finals.

In the sitting women's class, it was upstart Aline Dos Santos Rocha from Brazil who took home the victory with just over a second to spare over second place Kendall Gretsch. Gretsch made a solid run after starting 20 seconds behind the first starter, Anja Wicker.

Jake Adicoff crossed the finish line as the winner of the men's Class VI sprint. All four finalists were evenly matched, almost side by side, until the last corner into the race. There, Ukrainian Oleksandr Kazik's and Frenchman Anthony Chalencon's skis got tangled up and they both fell. Adicoff was thus able to celebrate his gold in the goal unthreatened.

“For the final, we had a plan to go out hard right from the start and stay at the front. We were lucky not to be involved in the collision towards the riot. Very fun to be the first to cross the finish line,” said Jake Adicoff.

The other top finishers for the day can be found below:

Women’s Seated
Aline Dos Santos Rocha, Brazil, 3:10.38
Kendall Gretsch, USA, 3:11.67
Anja Wicker, Germany, 3:13.35

Men Seated
Yerbol Khamitov, Kazakhstan, 2:44.23
Taras Rad, Ukraine, 2:45.07
Cristian Westemaier Ribera, Brazil, 2:45.34

Women’s, standing
Natalie Wilkie, Canada, 2:47.08
Vilde Nielsen, Norway, 2:47.49
Sydney Peterson, USA, 2:52.65

Men’s, standing
Marco Meier, Germany, 2:29.28
Grygorii Vovchynskyi, Ukraine, 2:33.47
Shevchyk Nazar, Ukraine, 2:34.41

Women’s, vision impaired

Carina Edlinger, Austria, 2:34.9
Linn Kazmaier, Germany, 2:35.96
Johanna Recktenwald, Germany, 2:57.29

Men’s visual impairment
Jake Adicoff, USA, 2:30.82
Nico Messinger, Germany, 2:35.55
Oleksandr Kazik, Ukraine, 2:40.57