Double World Champion title for Naeslund
In Saturday’s world championships big final, we saw Marielle Thompson (CAN) the qualification winner in red, reigning World Champion from 2021 Sandra Naeslund (SWE) in green, Fanny Smith (SUI) in blue and Kathrin Ofner (AUT) in yellow.
From the first heat on, Thompson and Naeslund won every single run until they finally met in the big final. As Thompson showed some really good skiing and beat Naeslund for the very first time in time trials this season, the result was more open than it was in every past eight races. Everyone was excited whether finally someone could beat the for 14-month unbeaten Naeslund or if she will achieve another victory in the most important race of this season.
Out of the gate it was Naeslund who had the fastest reaction time followed by Thompson and Smith and Ofner head-to-head in third position. Ofner was pushing the rollers better than Smith, gained a lot of speed and skied into the first turn in sole third position.
The ski cross train was skiing down like this until the corner jump, where Thompson jumped too far, got out of balance and only avoided a crash in the last second. This mistake costed her so much speed, that Ofner and Smith managed to overtake her in the next section.
Naeslund who was already 1,5 seconds in front of their prosecutors in the second intermediate showed her dominance once again by winning her third world championships title and this with only 26-years.
Ofner and Smith were fighting untill the very last second for second and third place. In the end, the photo finish decided. Ofner got second, Smith got third and Thompson came away empty handed, at least in the single event.
