Cross-country skiing: China dominates the first race of the world championships
The cross-country skiing world championships in Trondheim (Norway) opened on Wednesday with the traditional qualifying round, enabling athletes with too many FIS points to qualify for the start of the individual classic on 4 March.
In this event, which featured a number of nations with little presence on the World Cup circuit for the rest of the season, China particularly stood out. And at the end of the 7.5 kilometre course, Lingshuang Chen simply crushed all her rivals.
The Chinese rider won by a margin of more than 54 seconds over her compatriot Meng Honglian. A few seconds behind the day’s runner-up, another athlete from the Middle Kingdom took third place. Yilamujiang Dinigeer completed the top 3.
Behind the Chinese hegemony, seven places were still available to qualify. Australia’s Phoebe Cridland, Armenia’s Katya Galst, China’s Jialin Bayani, Liechtenstein’s Nina Riedener, Mongolia’s Ariuntungalag Enkhbayar and Hungary’s Sara Ponya and Lara Vanda Laczko all managed to secure their tickets for the individual world classic.
It should also be noted that athletes with fewer than 200 FIS points will also be able to claim a start number for the legendary 50km race scheduled for 9 March, the last day of these 2025 World Championships.
Read also
- To score less than 300 FIS points to qualify for the 2026 Olympic Games: the day of the great challenge has arrived for Simon Sancet, who took part in the qualifying race for the Trondheim World Championships.
- The full programme for the 2025 World Cross-Country Skiing, Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Championships in Trondheim
