Finally for Andersen!

Marianne Andersen took her first World Cup victory ever after winning todays very technical World Cup final over the middle distance. Overall World Cup victory went to Simone Niggli after a 9th position today.

– I have done some small mistakes several places and have had some bad routechoices – but I did not really get lost, so it was OK. The terrain was difficult, so I tried to be careful all the way, Marianne said to the speaker after the race, – It is very fun to finally win a World Cup race after 4 second places. This is a big step for me. Several times I did not know excactly where I was in the forest, and got very happy when I saw the control. Andersen also secured the second place in the overall World Cup with this victory.

The most difficult part of todays middle distance course was between the first and second radio control – and it was here much of the womens class was decided, as many good runners lost a lot of time here. Marianne Andersen had a good start, and manged to get through this technical area without big mistakes.

Minna Kauppi took the lead at the first radio control after catching Emma Engstrand early in the course. However, Emma Engstrand managed to get away from Minna Kauppi with nearly two minutes again towards the second radio control, as Kauppi did some big errors in this very technical area. Kauppi had a very good last part of her course – but not good enough to beat Andersen – finishing only 6 second behind Andersen.

Simone Niggli lost some time in the start – and was nearly half a minute behind Kauppi at the first radio control. Simone had also big problems in this technical area, and lost 4 minutes to Andersen.

The swede Annika Billstam started as number five in the womens class, and was the first runner to finish the 3.7 kilometer long course in just above 36 minutes. After two very bad races, Billstam had decided to take it slow today: – I was really slow and steady all the way long and never was really sure of myself, so i think one can run much faster but i had two really bad races so far this week so i prefered to take it safe and easy this time. But it turned out she had indeed chosen the correct strategy – as the race gave her a 4th place in the end. Billstam did a very good race in the technical area between the first and second radio control – and this is where she secured her good position in the end.

Unofficial results: