Saturday, the main square of Tromso, a few meters from the cold, North Sea water, housed the sprint race, assigning points for the World Cup.
In the men’s race, young Rottmoser won both the qualifiers and the semi-finals, making it to the last starting line side by side with Yann Gachet, Robert Antonioli, Andreas Steindl, Marcel Marti, and Marcel Theux. Rottmoser wanted to avenge last year’s second place and immediately set off at a staggering pace, leaving his pursuers with the only option of competing for a place on the podium. Behind the German, the Swiss Andreas Steindl tried to keep up, but Rottmoser is simply unbeatable.
In order to secure the second place, Steindl had to endure the attacks from Robert Antonioli first, and then from Yann Gachet of Team France. At the last straight, Gachet overtook Antonioli, though the five seconds that divided him from silver were too much even for him.
Rottmoser won this race, which the athletes themselves defined “urban skimoâ€, in 2’16’’, Andreas Steindl came second with a 5-second deficit, while Gachet stopped the clock at 2’26’’.
As regards the women’s race, the American Nina Silitch ended the race in 2’48’’, the Swiss Emilie Gex-Fabry came second, while the other Swiss Mireille Richard finished third in 2’50’’.
As regards the ISMF Scarpa World Cup standings, Laetitia Roux is safety in the lead with 1139 points, chased by the Italian Gloriana Pellissier (869 points), and the Swiss Maude Mathis with 825 points.
Regarding the men’s race, the leader is still William Bon Mardion, even though today he did not go over the 12th place. Mardion is in the lead with 798 points, Matheo Jacquemoud is 14 points behind, while Manfred Reichegger is third with 711 points.
Next, the white circus will move to Blatind for the individual race. The positive elevation difference will be 1900 meters for the men and 1600 meters for the women, with three uphill slopes. The race is scheduled to start at 10.
2013 ISMF SCARPA WORLD CUP
Blantind Artic Race – Individual Race
William Bon Mardion wins the Blatind Arctic Race and becomes the new World Cup champion. Laetitia Roux dominates the individual race and lands the crystal cup.
The Norwegian fiords crowned the new ISMF – Scarpa World cup winners. This morning on the Blatind show, a few kilometers from Tromso, the individual race officially closed the World Cup season. The Arctic Race drawn on the slopes giving on to the rocky fiords featured a difference in altitude by 1600 meters, while for the women the difference was 1300 meters. For both, the uphill stretches were three.
The French William Bon Mardion, after being in the back ranks for a while, at the end of the third slope took a few meters’ advantage on the pack formed by Martin Anthamatten, Manfred Reichegger, Yannik Ecouer, Matteo Eydallin, Damiano Lenzi and Alexis Sevennec. It was during the final downhill slope that the French Bon Mardion completed his masterpiece. Extreme lines that he alone was capable of seeing and mostly keeping up to from the beginning to the end.
Thr World Cup winner stopped the clock at 1:10’41’’. Only the Swiss Anthamatten kept up with the leader, though by the finish line he gave a 42-second deficit. In third place, the Italian Matteo Eydallin managed in the last sprint to overtake Yannick Ecoeur and Manfred Reichegger.
As regards the women, Laetitia Roux dominated the race as easily as she did throughout the season. In the first part of the race, Gloriana Pellissier and Maude Mathis kept the French athlete in their sight, though little short of halfway through the race, Roux pushed on the throttle and took the win and the crystal cup.
Laetitia Roux won in 1:09’04, while the Swiss Maude Mathis and the Italian Gloriana Pellissier came second and third, respectively.
As regards the general world cup standings, the top of the podium was taken by Roux with 1239 points. The second place was clinched by Gloriana Pelliser with 950 points, while Maude Mathis came third with 915 points.
As regards the men, the first place was harder fought. Bon Mardion, with 898 points, stepped on the higher spot of the podium. His fellow countryman Matheo Jacquemoud, finished second with 823 points. Third on the podium was the Italian Manfred Reichegger.
