One new name has come really to the fore in the European SkiO Championships: 20-year-old Russian Marina Vyatkina. Bronze in the Sprint, Silver at Middle Distance, and now Gold in the Long race. It was a tight victory, by 12 seconds over Sweden’s Magdalena Olsson. Top-ranked Russian Andrey Lamov won the men’s race, where it was an all-Russian podium.
Vyatkina won at Long Distance in last year’s Junior World SkiO Championships, and was silver medallist in both Sprint and Middle, but she has surprised everyone with her rapid rise to fame at senior level. In this race she led early on and then Olsson was fastest through the middle section. Vyatkina recovered the lead over the last 15 minutes of racing. Russian Tatyana Oborina, with already 1 gold (Middle) and 1 silver medal in these championships, finished here in bronze medal position, 1.50 down. Alena Trapeznikova raced very strongly throughout and appeared set for another victory today, but her punch did not register at the 25th control and she was disqualified.
The Czech team had plenty to shout about as Lenka Mechlova, world-ranked number 15, achieved fifth place today.
Andrey Lamov was not the fastest early on in the men’s race, but from the point where Silver medallist Sergey Gorlanov made a 1-minute error, Lamov produced high-quality racing technique, but with some small route-choice mistakes. They came together shortly before the end, but Lamov was the stronger and the hard-chasing Gorlanov was just 7 seconds slower at the finish. Vladislav Kiselev added bronze to the two silver medals already in the bag from this week, but was 2.30 down on the winning time. The one non-Russian to break into the three-fastest list was Bulgarian Stanimir Belomazhev, who was third for a period in the middle section of the race.
Tomorrow the final event of the championships takes place: the Relay.
Leading results, Long Distance
Women
- Marina Vyatkina RUS 1:37:59
- Magdalena Olsson SWE 1:38:11
- Tatyana Oborina RUS 1:39:49
- Kseniia Terekhova RUS 1:41:15
- Lenka Mechlova CZE 1:41:58
- Daisy Kudre EST 1:42:04
Men
- Andrey Lamov RUS 1:39:45
- Sergey Gorlanov RUS 1:39:52
- Vladislav Kiselev RUS 1:42:15
- Tuomas Kotro FIN 1:42:32
- Stanimir Belomazhev BUL 1:42:49
- Eduard Khrennikov RUS 1:44:00