Disappointing World Cup start

The first world cup round has so far been a big disappointment. The middle distance mass start was a disaster, I did a mistake already to the first control, had problems to pass skiers to advance in the field, got really stressed and later did a major mistake on the second round (3-4 min!). It is embarrassing to ski like this in the world cup and I just want to forget the whole race. Winner was Natalia Tomilova from Russia. Results: Middle distance.

The sprint to day (Saturday) was much better, I had to start early due to my bad result Friday, but skied pretty well, to slow in the beginning then faster, with no other mistakes than passing a crossing in to high speed, so that I had to turn (I guess 15 sec). I finished as number 8th, 29 sec behind winner Olga Novikova and 15 sec behind the podium. Although my hopes were higher for these individual competitions I am really happy to be back orienteering technically.

In the afternoon sprint relay was on the program, I skied with Marianne Mellby Larsen. We finished as fifth team, 1 min 20 sec behind the winning team, Sweden I. We each skied three legs of approximately 7 minutes. Both of us did pretty well and I think this was an optimal result for our team, so we are happy about the result. Sprint relay is new in the world cup this year, and as I see it a success. It was great fun, high speed and action all the way. Results: Sprint relay.

I will try to keep the good feeling and flow from to days race and prepare well for the long distance. It is embarrassing to open the world cup like this, and I really hope to do a much better race monday.