World Cup Speed Skiing Season Underway In The Arctic With Temperatures Approaching Minus Twenty Degrees Centigrade

Known to the world as 'The Middle of Nowhere', Salla Ski Area inaugurated the 2019 FIS Speed Ski World Cup this week with a pair of World Cup races. The fastest non-motorised athletes in the world competed on the most technical track on the World Cup calendar, battling extreme temperatures just 15 kilometres from the Russian border.

But, high wind cancelled the final run of the second race day, as Manuel Kramer (Austria) and Britta Backlund (Sweden) claim their second victories of the season.

In the men’s category, Austrian Manuel Kramer emerged victorious in the first race of the 2019 World Cup season with a speed of 170,21 km/h. The Italian brothers Simone and Ivan Origone (169.54 and 166.68 km/h respectively) rounded out the podium.

British team speed skier Jan Farrell said: “I am happy to have finished better than last year on the complicated track here in Finland. This is a promising result for the rest of the season and I will be attacking with everything I have in Sweden in three weeks.”

On the women’s side, Sweden’s Britta Backlund earned her first-ever World Cup win with a speed of 164.91 km/h, beating out the favourite, Italian Valentina Greggio (162.91 km/h). Celia Martinez of France finished third with a speed of 160.94 km/h.

High winds and low visibility forced race organisers to cancel the final run of the second race day. Based off of the semi-final result, Manuel Kramer claimed his second victory in two days with a speed of 161,85 km/h, followed by Italian Simon Origone (161,12 km/h) and fellow countrymen Klaus Schrottshammer (159,52 km/h).

Britta Backlund won the women’s edition with a speed of 154,63 km/h, with France’s Celia Martinez finishing second (153,74 km/h), and Italy’s Valentina Greggio (153,47 km/h), third.