Erik Canovi and Yuzhen Cidan won in the U18 category on a perfect racing day in Crevacol (Italy).
Crevacol, 11 February 2023 – More than 115 young athletes from ten different countries lined up today in Crevacol, on the Gran San Bernard Valley (Italy), for the first-ever ISMF Youth World Cup, an Individual race that saw two young Swiss athletes, Jon Kistler and Thibe Deseyn, claiming the victory in the U20 category. In the younger category, U18, Italian Erik Canovi and China’s Yuzhen Cidan crossed the finish line in the first position.
U20 Categories
In the U20 Men’s category, the race was a great battle between Kistler and his teammate Loïc Dubois, both of them 19 years old, who led the field from the first climb and were together throughout the whole race to finally have Kistler crossing the finish line in the first place, just two seconds ahead of his teammate. The bronze medal was for Frenchman Jules Raybaud, one of the youngest in his category, who showed his great form after winning the Individual race at the French National Championships last week.
The bittersweet 4th position was for Jeremy Anselmet (France), while Julian Tritscher (Austria) closed the top 5.
The winner, Kistler, said after his race: “After the second climb, Loïc and I were at the front of the race followed by the French duo of Jules and Jérémy. With some quick transitions I managed to get some gaps at the begining of the uphills but they were never big enough. Loïc and I started the last uphill together and with one or two minutes to go I managed to get the deciding gap. The race wasn’t as long as the races last year, which made it a fight from start to finish”.
The victory in the U20 Women’s category was for another Swiss athlete, Thibe Desey, who dominated the race from the beginning. Deseyn, 19 years of age, is one of the most promising skimo athletes in the circuit, having won two medals at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Games (silver in the Individual, gold in the Mixed Relay), the Pierra Menta Youngs and Patrouille des Glaciers and multiple U20 World Cups last year.
Behind her, the second place was for Louise Trincaz (France), another athlete with multiple World Cups under her belt, including only a few days ago the Vertical race in ISMF Dents du Midi. Noemi Junod (France) was the third one on the finish line, three minutes behind Deseyn. Quzhen Souland and Yuzhen Lamu (both of them from China) closed the top 5.
U18 categories
In the U18 Men’s race, the young Italian team dominated the race, with Erik Canovi claiming the victory on the day, finishing with half a minute lead over Austria’s Silvano Wolf. Canovi was one of the stars of the European Youth Olympic Festival last month, where he claimed two gold medals (sprint and individual) and a bronze (mixed relay).
The bronze medal was for another Italian, Marcello Scarinzi, while his two teammates Enrico Pellegrini and Mirko Lupo Olcelli closed the top 5.
Yuzhen Cidan (China) gave her country a historic victory in the U18 women’s category, the first medal ever for a Chinese athlete in an official ISMF competition. Behind her, Camille Maupoix (France) and Margaux Mendes de Leon (Switzerland) accompanied her in the podium. Martina Scola (Italy) and Lynn Pollinger (Switzerland) finished in fourth and fifth place.
Cidan, only 17 years old, was very calm and humble after her impressive win. “I’m very happy, but I had to work a lot for this. Today was my first international competition and I didn’t know the opponents. It was beautiful, and I enjoyed it a lot”, she said.
For the Individual race, the U20 Men faced an 8.5km race with 1040 D+, while the U20 women and U18 men had 6.5km and 830 D+ on the menu. The U18 women competed for over 6km and 785 D+.
