Cross-country skiing: Ringwald beaten, men under normal stress

At the World Cup premiere in Dresden, top sprinter Sandra Ringwald suffered a setback, while the German men are put under pressure in the fight for Olympic standards.

Sandra Ringwald leaned on her ski poles and stared slightly disbelievingly at the scoreboard. Quarter-finals in the sprint at the premiere of the Dresden Cross-Country Skiing World Cup and only 16th place: Germany’s top sprinter was annoyed.

“That went pretty modestly, I’d say,”the 27-year-old summed it up. But compared to the German men’s team, Ringwald was still doing well.

Nevertheless, Ringwald was annoyed:”Of course I’m very dissatisfied with the way things went” After finishing twelfth in the qualification, she let herself be wedged in in the quarter-finals and flew out with a clear distance “If you have a little inattentiveness, then you’re just in the back. And so it was,”said Ringwald.

At the Olympics in Pyeongchang (9. till 25. February) she mustn’t allow herself to do that, but she is optimistic anyway:”I’m in a good mood, I feel good. I just hope that I can show my performance in other competitions,”said Ringwald. The Swedish woman Hanna Falk won the women’s race in front of her compatriot Maja Dahlqvist.

Elisabeth Schicho had much more reason to rejoice than Ringwald. The 26-year-old from Schliersee came eighth as the best German and bought her ticket to South Korea.

After a stumbling block in the climb like Hanna Kolb (Buchenberg), who finished tenth in the final, she didn’t mind that she had failed in the semi-finals.

“It happens all the time. That’s why it’s not bitter. I did two great races,”said Schicho. The German men once again failed to achieve the top results. Seven of eight runners did not even make it through the qualification, Sebastian Eisenlauer (Sonthofen) retired in the quarter-finals and finished 16th in the final standings.

In the day’s success of the Italian sprint world champion Federico Pellegrino, the men’s team once again failed to live up to the Olympic norm.

“For myself, this was the first step in the right direction this year. That’s bitter, but in principle it’s going in the right direction,”Eisenlauer said.

But the team is running out of time in the struggle for standards. Thomas Bing (Rhön) and distance specialist Lucas Bögl (Gaißach) are the only ones to have qualified for South Korea so far. So there are still two qualified athletes missing to race a relay at the Olympics.

Jonas Dobler from Traunstein, who is not present in Dresden, has at least half a standard. Meanwhile, only the Dresden team sprint on Sunday and the World Cup next weekend in Planica/Slovenia still have the chance to win Olympic tickets.

Despite the first situation, Eisenlauer is confident:”There is still a chance in Planica. I’ll take the good feeling from here with me. I hope that somehow I will manage something. The odds are obviously diminishing, of course.”