Last weekend, the first stage of the Baltic Cup in alpine skiing organized by the Latvian Ski Federation (LSF) ended in the closed hall of the Lithuanian alpine skiing “Snow arena”. In the last two youth disciplines, without the overall winner of the women’s U14 group, Elza Zelčas, Latvia’s first places were finally conquered also in the men’s competition, thanks to Kristiāns Indriksons and Pēteris Paulas Prancāns. Kristiana Hartman was also once awarded as a winner.
After the super slalom on Friday, Saturday and Sunday three ski mountaineers from the Youth and Master group competed in the last two disciplines of the first stage of the Baltic Cup – slalom and parallel slalom. In the parallel slalom, the qualification took place first, in which the best eight were selected, who then, starting from the quarter-finals, faced each other in the elimination rounds. In the youth groups the number of participants ranged from 15 to 25 participants, with the exception of the U14 girls, where nine female alpine skiers competed.
For the girls in the U14 group, Elza Zelča continued her winning streak, taking first place in the slalom and super slalom. Thus, Elsa won in all three disciplines, making her the only one among all youth groups for girls. Although Zelča was no longer fighting as fiercely as in super slalom, Justine Baumane was also in the top three in slalom and parallel slalom, taking second and third place. For the boys, after the failure in the super slalom, Kristians Indriksons, counted among the group leaders in the previous article, recovered brilliantly, winning the last two disciplines and leaving the strong home team Martin Seppa in second place. Like Indriksson, Rihards Hartmans also had an unsuccessful start at the Baltic Cup, but later Rihards managed to get into the top three in a fierce battle with Estonia and take third place in both slalom and parallel slalom.
In the men’s U16 group, Pēteris Pauls Prancāns was the only Latvian who managed to earn a prize in the last two days: victory in the slalom and third place in the parallel slalom. For the girls in this group, Kristiana Hartmane, who did not finish in the super slalom, won second place in the slalom after Neringa Stepanauskaites from Lithuania. In the parallel slalom Fedorova eliminated Stepanauskaiti, one of the leaders of the group, in the semifinal, but in the final she lost against the winner Hartman, who had set the fastest time in qualifying.
In the men’s U12 group, Estonia’s Andre Sarri continued to dominate, winning all the prizes, as did Elsa Zelča. If in the slalom Edvards Kapteinis-Veits was the only Latvian in the top three with third place, then in the parallel slalom there were two of them: Leo Žermanis, who lost to the Estonian in the final and also won second place as Maiks Bērziņš, who won the small final, obtaining the second prize. For the girls in this group, after Lithuanian and Estonian, Nikola Grīnberga finished second on Saturday and Sunday, earning prized placements in all disciplines. In the parallel slalom, after beating the Estonian in the small final, after only 8th place in the slalom, Emilija Kliesta returned to the top three, second in the super slalom on Friday.
In the men’s master group, Tom Ilejs dominated, leaving no hope for the slalom and parallel slalom competitors, being unbeaten in all three disciplines. In the last two disciplines, the supporter of the Latvian national team Pauls Stēga won third place in the competition of more than ten participants.
In the women’s master group, where there was less competition, with four participants competing, in the first run of the slalom, Jacqueline Friskausa’s fiercest competitor, Rūta Paražinskiene, was eliminated, so Jacqueline celebrated a very convincing victory this time. Ieva Lagzdiņa and Jeļēna Brokāne took the last two places awarded. In the parallel slalom the women only reached the final, where the Lithuanian Paražinskiene easily beat Lagzdiņa.
