Diggins Fifth, Brennan Posts Career-Best Sixth In Davos
Jessie Diggins (Afton, Minn.) and Rosie Brennan (Park City, Utah) skied strategic races on Sunday to finish fifth and sixth respectively in Sunday’s FIS Cross Country World Cup 10k individual start freestyle in Davos, Switzerland. Norway took the top two podium positions with Therese Johaug winning followed by Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg in second. Krista Parmakoski of Finland was third.
The two-lap 5k women’s course in Davos is always a challenge, due to its high altitude, more than 150 meters of climbing per lap, and minimal areas to recover on the hilly, technical course. But it suited Diggins and Brennan just fine.
“I was really happy with today, this is a really tough course to pace because it’s such a long and hard grind, but I’m happy with where my shape is for this time of year and where it’s trending,” said Diggins. “I was super focused on skiing as efficiently as possible with strong technique and I was stoked about how I got after my process goals for this race”.
“Today was a dream finish to Period 1 for me,” exclaimed an ecstatic Brennan, who posted a career-best World Cup result. “Davos is a perfect course for me with lots of work and not much recovery and a little bit of altitude thrown in so I had some high expectations for myself today. The first 2k is my strength so I just focused on finding a good rhythm out of the start and then carrying it until the last km where I hoped to go for broke.
In the three-lap 15k men’s race, Russian Evgeniy Belov took the narrow victory by just 0.90 seconds over France’s Maurice Manificat. Norwegian Martin Johnsrud Sundby was third.
The U.S. Cross Country Team now breaks for the holidays and will resume competition at the Tour de Ski on December 29th in Toblach, Italy.
Rosie Brennan posted a career-best sixth-place World Cup result Sunday n Davos, Switzerland. (U.S. Ski & Snowboard - Reese Brown)
