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The Best Cross-Country Skiers Start on Otepää World Cup Weekend
Otepää World Cup Weekend 2015 podium (by Jarek Jõepera)
The skiing elite gather on next weekend at Otepää. Top 10 in men overall standings will start along with 9 out of the top 10 in ladies overall standings. Altogether 28 countries are represented.
The Chief of Competition, Vahur Leemets says that we can expect something special. “I have taken part in organizing every World Cup event in Estonia and I can’t remember seeing such an exciting lineup. It is clear that all the teams are coming with their best athletes,” comments Leemets. According to him Otepää World Cup stage will be the last chance for athletes to test their selves before the Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti in similar competition conditions. “The results on Otepää World Cup weekend can tell a lot about what we can expect from one or the other skier in the Nordic World Ski Championships,” adds the Chief of Competition.
The line-up at Otepää is impressive. Martin Johnsrud Sundby from Norway will start to defend his leading position in the overall standings. He will be challenged by the Tour de Ski winner Sergey Ustiugov from Russia as well as by the third man in the overall standings, Matti Heikkinen from Finland who is yet to win a World Cup race this season.
Tough competition to the top three will be offered by Alex Harvey from Canada (4th in the overall standings), Marcus Hellner from Sweden (5th), Dario Cologna from Switzerland (6th), Emil Iversen from Norway (7th), Finn Haagen Krogh also from Norway (8th), Maurice Manificat from France (9th) and Simen Hegstad Krueger from Norway (10th).
Among ladies Tour de Ski winner and the leader in the World Cup overall standings Heidi Weng will start. The second on Tour de Ski and overall, Krista Parmakoski from Finland will be looking to close the gap as will Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg from Norway who is only 16 points behind Parmakoski.
The winning will be made hard for the aforementioned ladies by Jessica Diggins from USA (5th in the overall standings), Marit Bjoergen from Norway who has 105 FIS World Cup Victories to her name (6th), Maiken Caspersen Falla from Norway (7th), Laura Mononen from Finland (8th), Yulia Tchekaleva from Russia (9th) and Kerttu Niskanen from Finland (10th).
Otepää World Cup Weekend will be held on 18th and 19th of February.
