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Marianne Fatton and Oriol Cardona reign supreme in Flaine
Flaine, 10 January 2024 – Impressive day of competition for Switzerland at the Sprint race of the 2024 ISMF European Championships in Flaine (France), with Marianne Fatton claiming gold after a fierce battle with Ana Alonso (ESP), and her teammate Caroline Ulrich alsdo on top of the podium on the U23 category. The men’s races were quite fruitful for the Swiss team as well, with Arno Lietha grabbing a silver medal behind Oriol Cardona -another title to his already impressive collection for the Spaniard- and a podium sweep on the Men’s U23 race.
On the women’s competition, Fatton made it clear from the beginning that she was on a mission: to finish the day one step higher than the podium of the Sprint race on the last World Championships, where she finished in second place. She dominated the qualification round, that saw all the big names of the sport making it to the next round.
Surprisingly, it was Cecilia Perillat-Pessey who won the first Heat, ahead of Fatton, with the likes of Laura Deplanche (FRA), Giulia Compagnioni (ITA), Marianna Jagercikova (SVK) or Ana Alonso (ESP) also winning their respective heats.
In the first semifinal, Perillat-Pessey dominated again the race, to make it to the final directly, along with Fatton while Deplanche, crossing in third, made it as a lucky looser. The second semifinal was for Ana Alonso to shine and cross the finish line ahead of Jagercikova, both of them guaranteeing also their spot on the final along with Caroline Ulrich, the second lucky loser.
In the final, Fatton showed that she had saved a bit of energy for the last effort, and managed to stay in front during the whole race, with Ana Alonso making a swift last change to cross the finish line in second place, the first podium on European Championships for her. The third place was for Jagercikova, adding another metal to her collection after outsprinting Celia Perillat-Pessey in the last meters.
The fifth place for Caroline Ulrich was enough to give her the U23 title, while Maria Costa (ESP) and Katia Mascherona (ITA) rounded the podium on this category.
Men’s race
Oriol Cardona has been really hard to beat on any Sprint race in the last couple of seasons, and today was no different. The Spaniard is the current World Champion of Sprint, also winner of the previous European Championships, and proved here in Flaine that racing at home helps, but he can deliver as well when racing somewhere else.
Cardona had a flawless competition, with a qualification round that saw him in the third place, enough to taste the waters and grant him a leading spot on his heat. A heat that was won easily by him, with some of the other big names of the specialty also making it easily to the next round, such as Matteo Favre (SUI), Arno Lietha (SUI), Loic Dubois (SUI) and Robin Galindo (FRA).
Switzerland was ready to prove that they are one of the strongest nations when it comes to Sprint races, with five men in the two semi finals, three men from Spain, and two each for Italy and France.
The first semifinal was dominated by Arno Lietha, ready for another head to head against Cardona in the final, with Jon Kistler (SUI) and Nicolo Canclini (ITA) also granting their spot at the final. ON the second semifinal, it was Oriol Cardona making it clear that he was here to fight for the victory, with Robin Galindo (FRA) and Robin Bussard (SUI) crossing the line behind him to make their way to the final.
At the final, it was Lietha who pushed hard to get himself ahead of the other men in the first meters, with Canclini struggling with a skin and out of the final quite early. By the time the five men made it to the steps, Cardona was already in second place, and he quickly moved to the first spot in the last climb, not even looking back on the descend to cross the finish line to get his second consecutive European title.
Behind him, Lietha grabbed silver and Galindo finished in the third place, while the fourth place of Bussard earnt him the title on the U23 category. He would be accompanied on the podium by two fellow countrymen, with Jon Kistler and Loic Dubios rounding the top three.