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Raimo Vīgants, one of the leading Latvian cross-country skiers, won the fifth place in the World Cup stage roller-skating competition in Otepää on Sunday in the 15-kilometer competition in the classic style with an interval start, but the Latvian representative Lauris Kaparkalējs won the junior competition.
Vīgants lost one minute and 54.9 seconds to the winning Norwegian Eirik Miesen.
The second was the home of Martin Himma, who was 5.3 seconds behind Miesen, and the third was another Norwegian Patrick Fossum Christophessen, who lost 37.7 seconds to his compatriot. 13.5 seconds before Vīgants finished, the home team Marko Kilps.
The second Latvian representative Ilvars Bisenieks took the 16th position in the competition of 17 skiers, six minutes and 20.8 seconds behind the winner.
In the women’s ten-kilometer distance, Kitija Auziņa won the eighth place in the nine-athlete competition, losing a minute and 31.3 seconds to the winner Johanna Udras.
Juniors were won by Latvian athlete Lauris Kaparkalējs, who completed the distance in 37 minutes and 32.7 seconds. He was 13.7 seconds ahead of Estonian Hendrik Peterson and 19.4 seconds ahead of Lithuanian Edwin Simonuti. Latvian Niks Saulītis lost another 16.8 seconds to the winner and took the fourth place.
The seventh in the 21 athletes’ competition was Uvis Akmentiņš, the 13th – Bruno Krampe, the 14th – Silvestrs Švauksts, the 17th – Gustavs Sināts, but Emīls Zaķis did not finish the distance.
In the women’s junior competition, the highest place from the representatives of Latvia was won by Samanta Krampe, who was six minutes and 26.4 seconds behind the winning German Merle Richter.
Among 4 athletes, Katrīna Bērziņa took the 12th place, but Marta Klēra Priede – the 13th place.
It has already been reported that on Saturday in Otepää Vīgants won a silver medal in the 27-kilometer competition with a joint start in the freestyle, but in the women’s competition, a bronze medal was won by Kitija Auziņa.
This weekend the season of the World Cup in roller skiing started in Otepää, however, in the first days, representatives from only six countries took part – in addition to the over-represented Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Finland and Norway also participate.
The current version of the calendar envisages the continuation of the World Cup in roller skiing in Latvia on the track “Smeceres sila” in Madona (August 28-30), but in the autumn the cup stage is planned in China (October 23-25). One week ago, the organizers of the Latvian stage informed that participation in the competition has been confirmed by such countries as Germany, Slovakia, Norway, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Estonia, Romania and Lithuania.
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