Highlights of Lahti Sprints

Our friends at Estonian TV have bits and pieces of the Lahti sprint
finals up:
http://etvsport.ee/index.php?0&popup=video&id=5488

THANKS TASSAVA

On Mar 1, 11:46*pm, tassava wrote:
Our friends at Estonian TV have bits and pieces of the Lahti sprint
finals up:http://etvsport.ee/index.php?0&popup=video&id=5488

Thanks! At the Swedish TV site they of course focus on Kalla and how,
in a semi-final heat when she was in the lead, a Finnish skier trying to
pass on the outside of a curve with plenty of room, skied way too close
and put a ski into Kalla's, causing her to fall. I don't know what
Kalla said in the interview, but it's interesting to me because it
pushes the threshold of accidents vs fairness and when DQs are
appropriate. But I guess everyone just usually accepts it and moves on
- or gets retribution when needed. You'd hate for someone to lose a WC
on something like that. In the men's final, Andy Newell recounts that
when he tried to pass Bjorn Lind, the latter cold stared him down - and
they're good friends.
http://svt.se/svt/road/Classic/share...&frameset=true
(Sport, Skidor, Langskidor, 3/1 video)

rm

tassava wrote:

Our friends at Estonian TV have bits and pieces of the Lahti sprint
finals up:
http://etvsport.ee/index.php?0&popup=video&id=5488

On 2 maalis, 23:07, wrote:

Thanks! At the Swedish TV site they of course focus on Kalla and how,

Of course: she is hot, she is cold, she is everybody's darling in
Sweden and in the entire Nordic skiing world.


in a semi-final heat when she was in the lead, a Finnish skier trying to

The trouble starts when commentators and fans put on their tinted
glasses and when skiers of other nationalities no longer have names:-)


pass on the outside of a curve with plenty of room, skied way too close
and put a ski into Kalla's, causing her to fall. I don't know what
Kalla said in the interview, but it's interesting to me because it

I believe it was Pirjo Muranen's - née Manninen - pole that sort of
got stuck with the binding of Charlotte Kalla's ski.

Kalla commented: "That is the kind of thing that just happens in
sprints and I am a rather rough racer myself, but it would be nice if
I've had my share of bad luck for this season."



pushes the threshold of accidents vs fairness and when DQs are
appropriate. But I guess everyone just usually accepts it and moves on
- or gets retribution when needed. You'd hate for someone to lose a WC
on something like that. In the men's final, Andy Newell recounts that
when he tried to pass Bjorn Lind, the latter cold stared him down - and
they're good friends.http://svt.se/svt/road/Classic/share....jsp?d=37591&f...
(Sport, Skidor, Langskidor 3/1 video)

Eldar Rønning went a bit further earlier this season and gave "a
Finnish skier" a good whack on the back with his pole - but it didn't
change the latter's opinion of who was right and who was wrong and
what was fair and what wasn't...

But back to the incident between (in alphabetic order) Kalla and
Muranen: IMHO it was a pure racing incident - and not a particularly
remarkable or dirty one - and I cannot imagine sprinting without such
incidents. If it had been Kalla cutting in from the outside and
Muranen refusing or failing to give way, would Kalla's skiing have
been called "unfair" or "bold"?

Besides, if the experience of the policy of issuing DQs to "unfair"
skiers and "free passes" to "wronged" skiers a few seasons ago is
anything to go by, it would only mean a step from one murky puddle to
another: the "threshold" would still be somewhat arbitrary and there
would be speculation about whether certain skiers or certain
nationalities were favored or at the very least questions why almost
identical incidents would result in different judgements.


Anders

It looked to me like a ski not a pole - or maybe both. I appreciate
what you say. I know in distance running on tracks there is a
certain amount of jostling allowed, but in shorter running races around
a curve, don't such squeeze tactics often lead to DQs? There have
been some cases of DQs this season, I think for Chandra Crawford and
maybe one of the US skiers, but the incidents involved seem to occur off
camera. I suppose there are some rules posted somewhere about this,
but it'd be nice if they'd clarify how they are interpreted for the
public.

rm

Anders wrote:

On 2 maalis, 23:07, wrote:

Thanks! At the Swedish TV site they of course focus on Kalla and how,

Of course: she is hot, she is cold, she is everybody's darling in
Sweden and in the entire Nordic skiing world.


in a semi-final heat when she was in the lead, a Finnish skier trying to

The trouble starts when commentators and fans put on their tinted
glasses and when skiers of other nationalities no longer have names:-)


pass on the outside of a curve with plenty of room, skied way too close
and put a ski into Kalla's, causing her to fall. I don't know what
Kalla said in the interview, but it's interesting to me because it

I believe it was Pirjo Muranen's - née Manninen - pole that sort of
got stuck with the binding of Charlotte Kalla's ski.

Kalla commented: "That is the kind of thing that just happens in
sprints and I am a rather rough racer myself, but it would be nice if
I've had my share of bad luck for this season."



pushes the threshold of accidents vs fairness and when DQs are
appropriate. But I guess everyone just usually accepts it and moves on
- or gets retribution when needed. You'd hate for someone to lose a WC
on something like that. In the men's final, Andy Newell recounts that
when he tried to pass Bjorn Lind, the latter cold stared him down - and
they're good friends.http://svt.se/svt/road/Classic/share....jsp?d=37591&f...
(Sport, Skidor, Langskidor 3/1 video)

Eldar Rønning went a bit further earlier this season and gave "a
Finnish skier" a good whack on the back with his pole - but it didn't
change the latter's opinion of who was right and who was wrong and
what was fair and what wasn't...

But back to the incident between (in alphabetic order) Kalla and
Muranen: IMHO it was a pure racing incident - and not a particularly
remarkable or dirty one - and I cannot imagine sprinting without such
incidents. If it had been Kalla cutting in from the outside and
Muranen refusing or failing to give way, would Kalla's skiing have
been called "unfair" or "bold"?

Besides, if the experience of the policy of issuing DQs to "unfair"
skiers and "free passes" to "wronged" skiers a few seasons ago is
anything to go by, it would only mean a step from one murky puddle to
another: the "threshold" would still be somewhat arbitrary and there
would be speculation about whether certain skiers or certain
nationalities were favored or at the very least questions why almost
identical incidents would result in different judgements.


Anders