In Val Martello (Bozen, Italy), in the presence of the Ortels-Cevedale mountain range, everything is ready for the fifth stage of the Würth Modyf ISMF World Cup. On Friday morning the athletes will compete in the Individual race, while on Sunday the spectacular Sprint race will take place in the Biathlon Centre.
Link for the live streaming of the Sprint race on Sunday 20 March at 11:00 CET:
https://tv.ismf-ski.org/events/8
In the last two days the LOC’s Race Director Egon Eberhöfer had to revise the Individual race’s track because of the lack of snow in some areas due to the high temperatures. He states: “On Sunday, together with my colleagues of the LOC, I marked the course and it was in good condition, but just two days after, on Tuesday morning, when we went up for a further inspection, we noticed that in some parts of the downhill there was not enough snow to guarantee the safety of the athletes. We did not make any big changes, maintaining the original length of 21 km with around 1875 m of difference in altitude almost unchanged. There will be six ascents with three parts on foot to be climbed with skis in the backpack”.
The first international delegations arrived on the spot already on Tuesday, while the last ones have joined only on Wednesday. A total of 18 countries will be represented: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, USA.
In the World Cup ranking, the Frenchman Xavier Gachet is leading the Individual race ranking with 390 points, followed by the two Italian winners of the recent Pierra Menta, Michele Boscacci and Matteo Eydallin with 352 and 297 points respectively. Among women, it is the French athlete Axelle Gachet-Mollaret who is on command of the ranking with 400 points, ahead of Tove Alexandersson of Sweden (336 points) and Emily Harrop (FRA) with 333 points.
In the Sprint race ranking, the Swiss Arno Lietha is in first position with 280 points, while the Spaniard Oriol Cardona Coll (260 points) and the Norwegian Hans-Inge Klette (228 points) are second and third respectively. Emily Harrop (FRA) is in the lead among the women with 290 points before the strong Slovakian athlete Marianna Jagercikova (239 points) and Tove Alexandersson (SWE) counting 223 points.
On Saturday 19 March, rest day for the international athletes, another Individual race of the Marmotta Trophy event will be staged. On the footprints of the World Cup competition, this race, affiliated to the La Grande Course circuit and included in the national calendar of FISI (Federazione Italiana Sport Invernali), will represent the SKIMO Alpencup final.
