Sandra Naeslund and Sergey Ridzik off to a flying ski cross start with World Cup golds

BySportsbeat

Updated 27/11/2021 at 13:03 GMT

Sandra Naeslund, the 25-year-old Swede, now a two-time world champion after adding the 2021 title to her victory in 2017, will be one of the Olympic favourites at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February and described taking World Cup gold as the perfect start to her season. "I hope it is a good omen," she said.

Sandra Naeslund of Sweden

Image credit: Getty Images

Sandra Naeslund threw down an early Olympic marker by taking World Cup gold at the ski cross test event in Beijing on Saturday.

The world champion was fast out of the gate and led the final from start to finish, beating Fanny Smith and Marielle Berger Sabbatel to the line in the first World Cup event of the season.

The 25-year-old Swede, now a two-time world champion after adding the 2021 title to her victory in 2017, will be one of the Olympic favourites in February and described this as the perfect start to her season.

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"I hope [it's a good omen]. I mean, it is a good start into the season at least and then I will take it race by race and then we'll see," she said.

"It was pretty difficult, it was hard to keep the rest of the heat behind and you had to go down the course perfectly all the way and my legs really hurt now."

In the men's competition, Russia's Sergey Ridzik overtook reigning Olympic champion Brady Leman late on to take the title, while France's Bastien Midol finished third.

"Thank you to my whole team for making this possible, it was a great competition, so was the course, really amazing actually," Ridzik said.

"I am so happy to be on the podium again. And I really hope to get on the podium again in February."

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