Cross-country skiing: Niko Anttola equals his best ever World Cup result
In Finland on Sunday, Kerttu Niskanen was delighted with her performance, finishing second in the mass-start classic in Toblach (Italy). In this second race of the Tour de Ski, the cross-country skier was only 0.5 seconds ahead of American Jessie Diggins. ” It was a fairly stressful race in the sense that there were a lot of flat sections and some fairly steep climbs, but not long enough for anyone to really get away,” described Kerttu Niskanen, who therefore had to fight hard in a decisive final sprint, particularly against Astrid Oeyre Slind. ” Jessie Diggins’ attack on the last climb surprised me a little”, she conceded in a press release from her federation.
Five Finnish cross-country skiers featured in the top 30. Krista Pärmäkoski finished 10th, Johanna Matintalo 11th, Jasmi Joensuu 16th and Jasmin Kähärä 30th.
The good surprise, however, was to be found in the men’s group. The best Finnish performance came from Niko Anttola. He finished 19th, equalling his best ever World Cup placing. That was last March, in a 20km classic in Ruka (Finland).
At the age of 21, Niko Anttola is discovering the Tour de Ski. And the least we can say is that he did very well. Especially as he started a little way back in a race whose starting order was based on the results of the previous day’s sprint. The distance runner was wearing bib number 40. But he gradually improved his ranking as the laps went by.
After the finish, the young man said he was satisfied with what he had achieved. He was able to manage the battle for the top places in the first two laps, but he wasn’t able to respond completely to the final surge. He’s already looking ahead to the rest of the programme, which resumes on Tuesday : “I’m going to continue in a good frame of mind. The gaps in the overall classification are still very close, so I’m looking forward to the next races with optimism “, he announced.
On Sunday, the gap between Niko Anttola and winner Johannes Hoesflot Klæbo was just 14 seconds.
The day was more mixed for his team-mates. Arsi Ruuskanen finished 32nd, Lauri Vuorinen 38th and Niilo Moilanen 68th.
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