Norwegian National Development Team coach Egil Kristiansen believes that one of his female skiers, Ingrid Narum might reach the podium in this years World Cup.
Specifically he has the sprint races in mind, a distance Narum has showed that she has great talent for.
“Anything can happen if she can advance from the prologue”.
FasterSkier.com explains:
The prologue is the first round in the sprint competition where all participants individually are racing the course of approximately 1.5 kilometers once. This is done at an “all out” effort and the top 16 skier’s advances to semi-finals with heats of 4 skiers.
The prologue represents the “eye of the needle” for many top domestic skiers. Being accustomed to qualifying for finals and even winning National sprint titles is no guarantee that you will reach the round of 16 in World Cup sprint races.
You are here suddenly up against approximately 90 skiers – that all look upon themselves as sprint-experts.
50 or so of this field might hold a 1-2 year-old National Sprint Championship title from their home country.
Kristiansen is optimistic and even believes that a podium trip (top three) is within reach for Narum.
“Ingrid showed lots of promise in the sprint last season”.
