Winter sports

Ruka – After fishing second at the men’s Ski Jumping World Cup event in Ruka on Saturday, Slovenian ski jumper Anže Lanišek won on Sunday the second such event at Finland’s ski resort this season in what is his first World Cup individual event victory.

Lech – Andreja Slokar won the parallel giant slalom event in Lech/Zürs in Austria on Saturday as part of the Alpine Ski World Cup to take the overall lead in the competition. This is the fist career win for Slokar and also the first win ever for Slovenia in parallel giant slalom.

Zreče – Slovenia’s veteran snowboarder Žan Košir won the Snowboard World Cup parallel giant slalom event on Rogla on Saturday only days after a disappointing performance by the home favourites at the World Championships at the same venue.

In the finals, the 36-year old beat Russia’s Andrey Sobolev, who won bronze at the Championships here on Monday.

Oberstdorf – Slovenia’s Nika Križnar, Špela Rogelj, Urša Bogataj and Ema Klinec won silver at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany, on Friday, missing gold by just 1.4 points. This is first medal for Slovenia’s women’s ski-jumping team at a world championship.

Pokljuka – France’s Antonin Guigonnat and Julia Simon are the winners of Thursday’s single mixed relay event as part of the Biathlon World Championships in Slovenia’s Pokljuka. The Slovenian pair of Jakov Fak and Polona Klemenčič were 13th.

The silver medal went to Johannes Thingnes Boe and Tiril Eckhoff of Norway, and Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson and Hanna Öberg won bronze.

Zakopane – Slovenian ski jumper Anže Lanišek won his third podium position this season as he finished second on the large hill in Zakopane, Poland on Sunday, less than three points behind Halvor Egner Granerud of Norway.

Men’s pursuit title goes to Jacquelin

French biathlete Emilien Jacquelin is the winner of Sunday’s pursuit race at the World Championships in Pokljuka. With a perfect shooting record, he clinched the title from Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson. Johannes Thingnes Bo of Norway won bronze.

Titisee-Neustadt – Slovenian ski jumper Ema Klinec recorded her second consecutive World Cup podium finish on Saturday as she won third place in Titisee-Neustadt behind the Austrian World Cup leader Marita Kramer and Norway’s Silje Opseth.

Klinec was fourth after the first series with a 126-metre jump and gained one spot in the second series with a jump of 130 metres.

Children from a village in northeastern Turkey lived their dream after they were taken to play curling at a professional rink.

The children from Yolboyu village in Kars province caught the attention of a large number of people after Anadolu Agency covered a story on them.

Ljubljana – The organisers of the Pokljuka Biathlon World Cup said on Wednesday they were working on having at least some spectators present at the competition despite the epidemic. They would like to invite immunised health workers to Pokljuka to have at least a few people cheer for the athletes and to show appreciation for their Covid-19 efforts.