Calle Halfvarsson was on completely different lines with the jury.
The Ruka World Cup ended dramatically for cross-country skiing on Sunday.
Swedish Calle Halfvarsson finished third in the men’s 20 km free pursuit race, but was disqualified. Third place went to Italy Federico Pellegrino.
The jury considered that Halfvarsson had skied off-piste on the rise of the stadium. The Swede went up the hill on the left side, another ski in the “opponents’ lane”.
The jury considered the foul worthy of a disc.
– I am really disappointed. I think the solution was wrong. The jury wanted an Italian rather than a Swede on the podium, Halfvarsson charged in front of the media.
Calle Halfvarsson was disco’d. PASI LEISMA
Competition manager of the International Ski Federation Michal Lamplot sent a Whatsapp message to all the national teams on Sunday morning reminding them about track markings. The message only mentioned the downhill.
– REMINDER FROM THE JURY. The hairs on the first downhill after the stadium are track markings, Lamplot wrote in a message that Iltalehti has also seen.
Based on the message, Sweden thought that blue plastic hairs cannot be crossed downhill. The national team assumed that the mountain was free game.
Thus, Halfvarsson also thought his way of proceeding was accepted.
– I thought that you can definitely go up the hill, as long as one ski is inside the track boundaries. I’ve seen others do this before. I don’t know why it wasn’t ok now.
– I went for a longer run than the others. I don’t think I broke the rules.
The Swedish skier states that the communication has been unclear.
– There has been a communication breakdown here.
Protest
Swedish national team’s Anders Byström showed Lamplot’s message to the media. Anni Saarela
Sweden made a counter-protest about the discus, which was not accepted. According to Halfvarsson, there was little to discuss with the jury.
The jury emphasized that the rules about track markings and boundaries are rules.
– The protest didn’t matter. The jury rarely changes its decision. I lost important World Cup points.
The race was won by Norway Johannes Kläbo.