World Champs go for the win in Val Thorens

WOW, after an entire week of a very tough battle with the weather conditions here in Val Thorens, the ski cross family got rewarded with a beautiful sunny day at last for Sunday’s competition that had been rescheduled from Friday (yep, you guessed it right, because of the bad weather conditions).

We literally couldn’t have asked for better conditions after Saturday’s tough race with bad visibility and really a big challenge for the athletes.

The track looked perfect already for the men’s quali (women’s qualification result were valid after Thursday’s run, but when it was time for the men, the weather hit in quite hard, so it had to be cancelled) and remained that way until it was time for finals.

World Champ Naeslund takes back-to-back wins

So, for the last heat of the day on the women’s side, Brittany Phelan (CAN) and Sandra Naeslund (SWE) repeated their performances from the day before, entering the big final. They were joined by Swiss ski cross ace Fanny Smith and 2019 World Champion Marielle Thompson (CAN).

Racing seemed just so effortless for Naeslund, considering she did a whole race up until finals the day before and taking the win. Naeslund’s skis seemed so fast already out of the start gate, securing the Swede once again first position, while Smith jumped into second position, leaving the battle for third up to the Canadians.

It was Thompson who could edge out her team mate Phelan to fourth and get into third position. It seemed as if in the first negative turn, a change of positions was almost possible, but in the end, Naeslund showed some amazing racing again, showing that she is in top shape and truly is the World Champion.

Smith followed as second across the finish line and Marielle Thompson made a great comeback to the podium after a very heavy summer of rehab for her knee, which seemed to be holding up greatly, according to Thompson’s performance.