Three Slovak racers were at the start of the first run of the giant Slalom in Jasná among 69 female skiers in total, but only two of them made it to the finish. The most successful one – Petra Vlhová suffered an ugly fall and an injury so Rebeka Jančová became the Slovak highest-ranked racer. So with 6 seconds and 12 hundredths down on Sara Hector as the winner of the first run, she ended up in the 56th place. “Only a second and a bit to get to run two. That’s not bad considering it was my third World Cup start,” evaluated the 20-year-old racer from Zvolen in the mix zone in Jasná.
She confessed that the course gave her a hard time. “It was difficult, icy, not forgiving when it comes to mistakes. As you could see, even the best skiers had problems with it. I started to lose energy in the lower course section too. The final gates were really tough,” admitted Rebeka.
“Peťa’s situation is very sad, but that’s sport. I was still down when she fell and saw it. And I thought I have to ski with courage because it is not easy. The more courage I have, the easier it is to ski for me usually,” she added. “But the spectators at the course were amazing.”
Poláková admitted to have been stressed
Sophia Poláková, a 19-year-old skier from SK Levoča experienced her premiere below Mt Chopok. With 11.53 seconds down, she finished 56th because thirteen racers didn’t manage to handle the icy first round well. “I had probably never raced on such a long course and have lost power before the end. But I am happy to have made it to the finish,” commented Poláková. The decision to start was made at the last minute but proved to be successful in the end. “I was stressed before my run, it was very turny. But it was quite fine considering it was my first World Cup ever,” she said and was happy.
