It’s hard to imagine a better start to the FIS marathon cup season – the Madshus Marathon Team claimed the top of the podium in both the men’sand the women’s category in the Jizerska Padesatka Sunday.
Home turf favorite and Madshus marathon team racer Stanislav Rezac (CZE) posted the fastest time in the 50K classic race Sunday, while Sara Svendsen (NOR) was fastest among the women.
Rezac polished off the course in 2 hours, 21 minutes and 49 seconds, leaving him an 8-second margin down to Jimmie Johnsson (SWE) in second place, and Jørgen Aukland (NOR) another second behind Johnsson.
“I skied on Zero skis, and was very excited to see if that was a good choice, but I had really awesome grip,” Svendsen said to Norwegian broadcasting station TV2 after the race.
“It was really fun to race today. I was really excited to see how it went, since this is a very different kind of racing than what I usually do. I just went out there skied, and it just got better and better, and at the end, it luckily was enough to win,” Svendsen said.
Svendsen completed the challenging course in 2:42.19, and had no less than 4 minutes and 19 seconds down to Tatjana Mannima (EST) in second place. Jenny Hansson (SWE) was third, 6:33 behind Svendsen.