An outstanding Nadine Fähndrich brings Switzerland a podium finish at the home World Cup in the Engadin. In the mixed relay, the athlete from central Switzerland jumped from 8th to 3rd place.
24.01.2025, 18:45
24.01.2025, 21:50
SDA
Nadine Fähndrich was showered with compliments at the finish line. "Anja (Weber) did a good job, Jason (Rüesch) did a good job and Nadine was simply incredible," enthused the Swiss start runner Jonas Baumann, who was not satisfied with his 9th intermediate place and spoke of a "brutal" 5 km loop. "It's really good when such a fast woman runs the final run," added Jason Rüesch.
Fähndrich took over in eighth position as the final runner of the 4x5 km relay with two runs each in classic and skating technique. "I knew that I could run faster than some of those ahead of me," she summed up. "And the gap wasn't that big." After all, she was 45 seconds behind second-placed Austrian Katharina Brudermann, who runs in a different category to world-class sprinter Nadine Fähndrich. In the end, only the victorious Swedes and the Norwegians were out of reach.
As in Davos (2nd Riebli/Grond, 3rd Weber/Fähndrich in the team sprint), the Swiss thus made a very successful start to the home World Cup in Silvaplana. Things did not continue in the same style in mid-December, and now Fähndrich, Janik Riebli and Valerio Grond in particular are hoping for more top results in Saturday's sprint.
"It took a lot of strength today," admits Fähndrich. Some of the strongest sprinters took a break on Friday, but the 29-year-old from Lucerne hopes to have learned a few tactical things about the final part of the sprint course in return. "I'm glad to have a bit of oxygen again now," said the five-time World Cup winner in individual sprints with a laugh. But her form is good, "and then I'll actually recover quickly."
