Skiing | Kerttu Niskanen, who is chasing the crystal ball, regrets the missed competitions in the early season

Bay

Lahten On Sunday, the crystal balls of the winners of the skiing world cup will be distributed in Salpauselkä.

The overall cups have already been decided, but for Finns, the biggest interest is in the crystal ball battle of the Women’s Normal Travel Cup.

Before the final race, Niskanen is firmly committed to winning the Cup. The difference with the USA, which is second to Jessie Diggins has 22 points.

On Sunday, a 20-kilometer traditional skiing joint start will be skied in Lahti, which seems to suit Niskanen clearly better than Diggins.

“I’m not thinking about points or overall cup situations, but about how I can ski my last race of the season as well as I can,” Diggins said after Saturday’s sprint.

“I try to ski like Gerttu. Long, beautiful shift skiing,” Diggins enthused while demonstrating Niskanen’s technique.

Do you believe that you can still win the Niskanen distance cup?

“The race is traditional, so I’m just going to do my best,” Diggins said as if giving up.

Instead, the American wanted to give separate praise to the Salpausselkä race crowd.

“The fans here are incredible. This is a really great place to top off the World Cup. There will definitely be a great atmosphere here on Sunday.”

Neck I don’t buy Diggins’s words that the distance cup is practically clear.

“I think it will be a tight race. Diggins was better than me in the (traditional sprint) time trial. Yes, he has a way too. When I know him, he won’t give up. We will definitely fight until the end,” Niskanen commented.

Winning the Normailamattkagen Cup would be quite a rare achievement for Finns. Only the Finns have won it Virpi Kuitunen (now Sarasvuo) in 2007 and 2008 and Iivo Niskanen last season.

Niskanen has also practically secured his place as the third Norwegian in the overall cup Tiril Udnes Wengin and behind Diggins, his career-best finish.

Neck now regrets his early season decision when he missed four sprint races. If he had competed at that time, even the overall victory of the World Cup could have been possible.

“At that time, it was not in my mind that I would be this high. If I could get them back now, I would ski all those trips in a row,” Niskanen laughed.

Success at the Tour de Ski at the turn of the year was decisive for Niskanen’s cup success. After that, he also decided to go around all possible races in the final season to collect points.

The World Cup scoring system was renewed for this season. Now, the value of a single victory is lower than before, and the most successful athletes in the Cup are those who travel around the Games and are even moderately successful in them.

“I may not have supported this reform in that way. I have been on the side of the old system. “

“Of course, as such a strong distance skier, it feels pretty wild to do these sprints in a row at the end of the season. But the game has been played once, let the game last,” Niskanen said.

The women’s World Cup final will start on Sunday in Lahti at 12:00, the men’s race at 1:45 p.m.