Cross-country skiing: Kalla beats Björgen – Carl in 20th place

Marit Björgen missed the overall victory of the Mini-Tour in Kuusamo, Finland, at the start of the Cross-Country World Cup. The 37-year-old record world champion had to admit defeat in Sunday’s pursuit race over 10 km in the free style of her Swedish permanent rival Charlotte Kalla, who took the lead in the overall World Cup with her first victory since February 2015.

Björgen, who will be celebrating their 111th birthday on Saturday over 10 km of classical music. World Cup victory was 9.7 seconds behind the Vancouver Olympic champion.

Third place went to Björgen’s compatriot Ragnhild Haga (+33.9). The best German was the former Junior World Champion Victoria Carl, who drove from 28th place to 20th (+2:12.3) with a courageous race.

“The girls ran very enthusiastically, especially Vicki moved very well,”said Andreas Schlütter, sports director at DSV:”The direction is right, the nervousness has dropped. Now we can look to the next races with optimism.”

However, after the first three races of the Olympic winter, no DSV runner has yet met half the standard for the games in Pyeongchang.

Sandra Ringwald was 27th (+2:43.1), Stefanie Böhler 29th (+2:43.9) and Katharina Hennig 40th (+3:17.9). Nicole Fessel, Germany’s best distance runner, was missing in Kuusamo due to the after-effects of a mild illness.