Ski Orienteering World Cup Long Distance: Victories of Khrennikov and Alexandersson in the farewell to Ylläs

Eduard Khrennikov and Tove Alexandersson finished in the best way their participation in Ski Orienteering World Cup 2015-2016's opening round. In a tough Long Distance, hardly contested, victories for this two giants, saying goodbye to Ylläs with the gold on their chests.

Like two long waves, first the Men and then the Women came in to the Ylläs snowed forest after an always amazing mass start. It was in progress the Long Distance, the last of the four stages of the Ski Orienteering World Cup's opening round of the season 2015-2016, in Lapland, northern Finland, hold this morning. In the Women class, Tove Alexandersson did again a perfect race, leading since the beginning and keeping all the time the Russian Mariya Kechklina and Polina Frolova at safe distances. In the end, Tove took her third victory in a row in this SkiO World Cup's opening round, registering 1:01:11 for a 16,2 km, 2:30 faster than Kechkina and with Frolova being third, with more 3:37 than the winner. In the immediate positions, three “home athletes”: Sally Koskela, Mira Kaskinen and Sonja Moersky. Sprint stage's winner last Friday, the Russian Tatyana Oborina started very well but did a couple of really big mistakes during the race, falling to the final 21st position.

In the Men class, we could watch an amazing fight between the Swedish Ulrik Nordberg and the Russian Eduard Khrennikov, separated by short seconds all over the race. Both did great performances, with Nordberg taking the lead for most of the course. The Bulgarian Vladimir Belomazhev seemed to be ready to fight for the victory since the very beginning but a tremendous mistake in the first fork was fatal for his goals. Khrennikov was stronger than Nordberg in the last section, with the Russian finishing the 23,5 km of his course with the time of 1:23:58. Nordberg got 13 seconds more than the winner. In the third, fourth and sixth positions, also three Swedish athletes, Martin Hammerberg, Erik Rost and Markus Lundholm. Tuomas Kotro, from Finland, was fifth, at 2:11 from the leader. Like Oborina, the Russian Andrey Lamov, Middle Distance's winner last Sunday, also saw him in big trouble after a good start and the result was a 24th final place.

Results

Men

1. Eduard Khrennikov (Russia) 1:23:58 (+ 00:00)

2. Ulrik Nordberg (Sweden) 1:24:11 (+ 00:13)

3. Martin Hammarberg (Sweden) 1:25:49 (+ 01:51)

4. Erik Rost (Sweden) 1:25:50 (+ 01:52)

5. Tuomas Kotro (Finland) 1:26:09 (+ 02:11)

6. Markus Lundholm (sweden) 1:26:12 (+ 02:14)

Women

1. Tove Alexandersson (Suécia) 1:01:11 (+ 00:00)

2. Mariya Kechkina (Russia) 1:03:41 (+ 02:30)

3. Polina Frolova (Russia) 1:04:48 (+ 03:37)

4. Sally Koskela (Finland) 1:05:11 (+ 04:00)

5. Mira Kaskinen (Finland) 1:05:20 (+ 04:09)

6. Sonja Moersky (Finland) 1:06:24 (+ 05:13)

Full results and further information at http://ensilumenrastit.fi/2015/.

Joaquim Margarido