Poltoranin claims Tour de Ski victory in Switzerland
BySportsbeat
Updated 01/01/2014 at 21:48 GMT
Kazakhstan's Alexey Poltoranin claimed victory in stage four of the Tour de Ski as he topped the pile in the 15km classic mass start in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
Alexey Poltoranin
Image credit: Eurosport
Poltoranin had the lead into the final downhill and held off all challengers on the homestretch to claim his first victory of the season in 34:28.1 minutes.
And this was no mean feat considering that in the chasing group were two Germans who with their result automatically qualified for the Sochi Olympic Games.
Hannes Dotzler had to settle for second 0.6 seconds behind Poltoranin while compatriot Thomas Bing was fourth, but both booked their spots for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Jens Filbrich, also of Germany, qualified for the Olympics with his seventh-place finish while taking third in Switzerland was Russian Stanislav Volzhentsev.
Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby collected sprint bonus seconds throughout the competition and moved himself into the overall Tour de Ski lead despite finishing 14th in Switzerland.
Swede Calle Halfvarsson sits second overall while Canadian Alex Harvey slips to third.
Meanwhile, Great Britain’s Andrew Young was 59th while Andrew Musgrave finished 71st.
In the women’s 10km mass start it was Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen left celebrating as she came home in 26:27.4 minutes.
And she was followed home by a host of Norwegians with Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen coming second, Therese Johaug finishing third and just nudging compatriot Heidi Weng off the podium.
Despite finishing second best in Lenzerheide Jacobsen still leads the way in the Tour de Ski with Niskanen third and Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg sandwiched in between after finishing tenth in Switzerland.
© Sportsbeat 2014
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