Canmore (dpa) – German cross-country skiing champions Katharina Hennig and Victoria Karl missed the podium in the first race held in Canmore, Canada.
In the mass start over 15 kilometers in the free technique, Hennig finished 10th best German, with American Jessie Diggins winning. In the end she was 15.2 seconds behind the winner. Karl (+16.6 seconds) came in twelfth place, and the podium was completed by Delphine Claudel from France (+2.6 seconds) and Heidi Wong (+3.3 seconds) from Norway. Among the men, Friedrich Moch took a solid fourth place.
The two German runners were in the leading group for large parts of the race. Karl was even able to take the lead mid-race on the difficult track, but lost contact with the front at high speeds, like Hennig. Lisa Lohmann (20th) and Catherine Sauerbrey (24th) earned World Cup points.
Kruger wins among men
Things went better for the German men and Frederik Moch, who narrowly missed out on the podium when Norwegian Simen Heggestad-Krüger took victory. In the end, he was 11.1 seconds behind the winner of the mass start, also over 15 kilometers away.
Krüger dropped out of the field midway through the race and was 9.8 seconds ahead of compatriot Harald Östberg Amundsen at the finish. Austrian Mika Vermeulen came in third place (+10.3 seconds). Florian Notz ran 13th (+32.9 seconds). Anyan Susau (32), Lukas Bogel (33) and Florian Knopf (34) narrowly missed out on World Cup points.
Because the timers did not arrive in Canada on time, two group matches were played instead of individual start contests. The German runners also had bad luck with their luggage. Due to a lack of equipment, Hennig was unable to practice on the trails on the first day in the Rockies, but was only able to explore the area by jogging.
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