21:31. On Thursday evening, Russian cross-country runner Alexander Bolshunov returned to competition in Europe for the very first time since 2022 and his country’s ban from international competition.
A year ahead of the Milan/Cortina 2026 Olympic Games, which he could compete in under a neutral banner, the man with nine Olympic medals won the Moonlight Classic, a popular 30-kilometre night race , in Seiser Alm (Italy). Present in a group that had isolated itself at the front, he accelerated in the final kilometres to beat Lorenzo Busin, in second place by 14 sec 4.
In the women’s race, Austria’s Anna Schmidhofer beat Polish legend Justyna Kowalczyk and Sweden’s Malin Boerjesjoe to win.
Full results
30 km
15 km
