Jaunumi

Latvian Skiing association will organize FIS race and National championships in cross country skiing, which will take place in skiing center “Mailes” in Vietalva just on the eve of the World championships on the 14th and 15th February. First day will be sprint in classical style, but on the other day competition program includes middle distances – 15km for men and 10km for ladies with interval start in free technique.

Vietalva is around 130 km to the East from capital Riga and about 50km to the south west from Scandinavian cup place Madona. For many years there had been organized Latvian championships, but for the first time in Vietalva national championships will be also a FIS race. The track in this skiing center is beautiful and also demanding. Competition in Vietalva will be the second stage from the three of the National championships, all organized in FIS status.

The first stage was as usually in the beginning of the year – on 10th and 11th January in Priekuli, where in addition to local skiers participated several Estonians, mostly from the second national team, and also some Lithuanian biathletes, including high place winners at Olympic games and World championships Diana Rasimoviciute and Tomas Kaukenas. 10km in classic for first four places earned Estonians with Marti Himma wining the race. In free technique Diana Rasimoviciute dominated the 5km for ladies, but in 10km for men was affected by the weather conditions, because it started to snow in the middle of the race. Thus the participants with best points, which started at the end had to struggle. Benefiting from the early starting number Latvian Oskars Muiznieks won by more than one minute "text-align: justify;"> On Saturday 14th January in Vietalva skiers will compete in sprint in classical style., but on Sunday will be interval start distance in free technique. Men will have to ski 15km, bet ladies half of that. Last year at Latvian nationals and FIS race in classic sprint Estonians Andres Kollo and  Marko Kilp won ahead of best Latvian Janis Paipals, but on the ladies side dominated World cup experienced Estonian Heidi Raju.