Naeslund back on top and Regez with first season victory in Innichen

What a beauty of a day in Innichen, South Tyrol on this Sunday noon it was to witness some excellent ski cross action underneath the magical Haunold at the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup 3 Zinnen Dolomites in Innichen.

After an intense program so far with 4 races in the past 9 days and two more to go, one today and one on Monday, ski cross athletes are really being challenged for their performances just before Christmas.

But we love to see double-racing-action and we definitely can’t get enough of that. But now to a little recap of what happened today…

Naeslund in a league of her own

For the big final of women, Brittany Phelan (CAN) and ongoing rivals Fanny Smith (SUI) and Sandra Naeslund (SWE) went into the start gate. Of course, there were supposed to be four women in the gate, however, Marielle Berger-Sabbatel from France crashed in the semi-final in during the battle for the entry ticket to the big final and was not able to compete in the big final. At this stage, it is not confirmed, how serious her injury is, but in any case, we are sending some major healing vibes to the French ski cross star.

World Champ Naeslund was once again super fast out of the start gate and seemed to have skis on fire, taking the lead very quick and creating a major gap of 0,71 seconds in the second interim time with her rival Smith behind and Phelan sitting in third.

The battle was therefore going on for second and third place between Smith and Phelan, where the Canadian was able to almost pass the Swiss in the final left turn, however Smith was able to get to the kicker faster and up in the air, she always is super fast, therefore kept the lead. But then, at the finish section of the course, the two would not give in and fight until the very end.

Finally, the finish result was the victory for Naeslund with an unbelievable margin of 2.14 seconds of a margin before Smith, who just with the tiniest margin of 0.02 seconds edged off Phelan into third.