At the start of the World Cup, neither brilliant performance nor total disaster

Created: 01.12.2022, 17:00

By: Wolfgang Stauner

Hopeful look into the season: At the start in Val Thorens, Tatjana Paller managed two solid performances in the sprint and mixed relay with places ninth and eleventh - with room for improvement.

In Team Relay at the start with Finn Hösch © Skimostats/kn

At the start of the World Cup in Val Thorens, ski mountaineer Tatjana Paller from Lenggries had to settle for ninth and eleventh place in the sprint.

Val Thorens/Lenggries – That's what the season openers are like: No athlete knows exactly where he stands in comparison to the competition.

How did the opponents “upgrade” physically and technically during summer training?

How about your own form?

These questions are usually answered at the first competition.

The first World Cup stop for the ski mountaineers in Val Thorens - a sprint and a mixed relay were scheduled - gave Lenggrieserin Tatjana Paller, the only German starter, a first insight: With places ninth (individual) and eleven (relay with Finn Hösch) she is on the right track, but there is still room for improvement.

"It was neither a brilliant achievement nor a total catastrophe," the three-time German champion summed up her performance self-critically.

In qualifying with the seventh fastest time

In qualifying for the quarter-final heats, the 27-year-old finished seventh.

But a look at the tableau of the 24 quarter-finalists showed that the level has risen drastically, especially among the French, Italians and Swiss.

“You can tell that the other nations have grown significantly since it became known in the summer that only the two fast Skimo disciplines will be Olympic.

Now everyone is going for it,” explains Paller.

End in the semifinals

The Isarwinkler also went full on attack in her quarter-finals and easily advanced to the semi-finals with second place.

But that was the end of it – in fifth place and around ten seconds behind Celia Perillat-Pessey from France, who qualified third for the final.

"There's still a lot to do," Paller admits.

"Especially when it comes to technical things like changing skins, putting them on and taking them off."

In Team Relay at the start with Finn Hösch

The fact that the division of strength can also be improved was shown the following day in the time qualification for the Team Relay, which lasts a good twice as long as the individual sprint.

“I did almost everything wrong that can be done wrong.

I started way too fast from the start and was basically flat out after three of the ten minutes,” reports Paller.

In the race itself things went a little better alongside Finn Hösch: 11th place out of 25 mixed teams.

Another training camp is scheduled for the weekend, followed by a comparison competition with the Austrian team in Schladming the week after before the second World Cup weekend (December 16) in Ponte di Legno.

Also read:

Paller with podium potential