An other snowy day in Tänndalen

Although I got to practice ski-o in heavy snowfall at the sprint yesterday, I did not handle the snowy conditions to day very well (Picture above taken from our hotel room). It was snowing a lot and the visibility of the tracks were not good , the snowfall also made it difficult to read the map. I had trouble to read the map in the beginning and felt that I totally lacked flow in the map reading, however, except a turn towards the fourth control, as I did not see the tracks at all up there, I skied OK. Then it happened; towards the sixth control I could no longer see the broad tracks and totally lost control in the downhill, a major mistake that costed me to much time. I had no idea were I was until I saw a cabin and later a road. See tracking here: GPS Tracking. After this mistake I did not ski very well, no big mistakes but small mistakes and map reading stops I could not afford to get a top result. What I did not know was that nearly all the girls did the same mistake towards the third control and that if I just skied well the rest of the race, top three would still be in reach. I finished fifth, Polina Malchikova won, Alena Trapeznikova was second and my room mate Stine O Kirkevik won the bronze medal and saved the day.

(Wing OK well represented at the Ski-WOC; Lars Moholdt, Emily Wall, Chris Forn, Marte Reenaas, Christian Hohl. Helen Palmer will come to compete in the relay)

Christian was number 13, a good result under difficult conditions. He did not have a good feeling when racing, no major mistakes as he knows of, but is not sure if he had some bigger time losses in his race. "Probably no body had a great feeling to day".

GPS for part I and II of both the women and the mens middle distance and the sprint can be found here; GPS tracking WSOC.

To morrow mixed sprint relay is on the program, a new discipline and open competition. Many nations have good teams and I think it will be a tight fight for the medals. Christian will ski for Switzerland together with Carmen Strub. I will not ski to morrow, to recover for the long distance and the relay. Stine Kirkevik and Hans-Jørgen Kvåle will ski in the Norwegian team.