Andorra's Olm and Palmitjavila Reach Quarter-Finals at Boí Taüll Ski Mountaineering Sprint
Oriol Olm finished 13th overall and Max Palmitjavila 25th after strong quarter-final showings in the World Cup sprint, Andorra's last event before.
Key Points
- Olm 18th in men's qualifying (2:47.53), 4th in quarter-final heat, 13th overall.
- Palmitjavila 16th in qualifying (2:47.29), 6th in quarter-final, 25th overall.
- Casanovas 56th in qualifying due to penalty; Ancion missed women's top-30 by 1.17s.
- France's Anselmet won sprint; World Cup pauses for Olympics, resumes in Azerbaijan.
Andorra's Oriol Olm and Max Palmitjavila reached the quarter-finals at the Boí Taüll Ski Mountaineering World Cup sprint, with Olm securing 13th place overall and Palmitjavila 25th in the fourth round of the season.
The event at the Catalan resort wrapped up Sunday after Andorra's FAM team skipped Saturday's mixed relay. All four selected athletes—Olm, Palmitjavila, Marc Casanovas, and Lea Ancion—entered the sprint, Andorra's sole outing before the Winter Olympics pause.
In men's qualifying, Palmitjavila posted the 16th-fastest time of 2:47.29, 4.67 seconds behind Italy's Nicolo Ernesto Canclini. Olm was 18th at 2:47.53, 4.91 seconds off the lead. Casanovas finished 56th in 3:06.03, hampered by a penalty and roughly 14 seconds outside the top-30 cutoff.
Ancion came close in the women's field, clocking 3:38.78—18.28 seconds behind Austria's Johanna Hiemer—but missed 30th place by 1.17 seconds to Spain's María Ordoñez.
During the quarter-finals, Palmitjavila ended sixth in his heat at 2:55.4, 18.6 seconds behind Catalonia's Oriol Cardona. Olm took fourth in the final heat with 2:45.8, five seconds off Biel Pujol and just one second shy of semifinals. France's Thibault Anselmet claimed the sprint title, followed by Cardona and Russia's Nikita Filippov.
The World Cup now breaks for the Olympics, resuming in March in Azerbaijan.
Original Sources
This article was aggregated from the following Catalan-language sources: