When the road begins to climb, the rhythm and power
qualities of the cross-country skiers emerge. That’s what has happened today during
the second competition of the Rollerski World Championships hosted by Aosta Valley : a
five kilometers long track in classic technique from Villettaz to Torgnon with a gradient
of over 400 meters. Among the men the Slovak 26 years-old Martin Bajcicak has imposed on
everybody and has won with the final time of 18'51" relegating to the second place
the French athlete Vincent Vittoz, 15" far away from him and on the third step of the
platform is the other transalpine rollerskier Alexandre Rousselet, with a fial time of 52
seconds and 6 tenth. The captain of the Slovak national team, Ivan Batory, has remained to
the feet of the platformfor for a tenth only.To the fifth place is the first Italian
athlete: Alfio Di Gregorio which has remained excluded by the medals because was just 4
seconds late. Anyway the result of the Italian team is the following: Alberto Pertile to
the eighth place ( 1'30") and Mirco Collavo to the tenth place (1'45").
DI Gregorio, a little bit disappointed because of a test that gave him as the probably
winnwer, consoles him with the conquest of the leadership of World Cup that will have to
defend in the tests sprint of tomorrow and pursuit of Saturday.
Even among the women the cross-country ski, with the remarkable race of the Frenchwoman
Karine Philippot that has won with the final time 22'34" and leaving the silver medal
to the teammate, Anniek Vaxelaire Pierrel ( 1'23") and third the German Isabel Klaus.
The first Italian win belongs to Viviana Druidi to the 14th place, 4'09"
far away. Noteworthy the excellent test realized by the Russian Eugenia Bitchougova that,
despite the age (class 1960), has conquered the fifth place (2'11").
For the Italian team things are gone better thanks to the junior ones: the
twenty-years old athlete has conquered the silver medal behind the Sweden Bjorn Andersson,
of well 28 seconds far away; third place for the German Florian Rohde. Good race for the
junior team that yesterday conquered the gold in the team race: Eugenio Bianchi to the
seventh place and Oscar Romanin, ninth place.
In the female competition 2 medals to the Czech Republic: gold to Ivana Janeckova and
silver to Katerina Smunta and third step of the platform to the transalpine Elodie
Bourgeois Pin. Martina Rigoni conquered the eighth place ( 4'52") followed by Mateja
Bogatec 5'18" far away.
Press office by Comet PRess
All the press releases, the official classifications and
some digital images of the competitions are at disposal of the press on the site www.cometapress.it
FIS ROLLERSKI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2002
