At the Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo today, Latvian athletes will compete in skeleton, cross-country skiing, luge, and short track, while the men's hockey team of Latvia will begin the tournament, reports LETA.
First, in Cortina d'Ampezzo at 10:30 and 12:00, Emil Indriksons will conduct the first two heats in skeleton, where great attention will be focused on whether Ukrainian skeletonist Vladislav Geraskevich, who starts with a helmet that is banned for use in competitions by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), will go unpunished.
At 14:00 in Val di Fiemme, Latvian female skiers, including Patricia Eiduka, will take to the track for the 10-kilometer freestyle race with a staggered start, which will be the most important competition for her at these Games. Linda Kaparkaleja, Samantha Krampe, and Kitija Auzina will also compete in this discipline.
At 19:30 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Olympic program of the day will conclude with the luge team relay — a discipline in which Latvia has won medals at two of the last three Olympic Games.
From 21:30 in Milan, there will be short track competitions at a distance of 1000 meters, featuring Robert Cruzbergs and Reinis Berzins. The competitions will start with the quarter-finals, followed immediately by the next rounds, and the champion will be determined in less than an hour and a half.
Finally, at 22:10, the Latvian men's hockey team will face the USA in their first match of Group C.
The Olympic competitions are broadcast live by the LTV7 channel.
In skeleton, 19-year-old Indriksons is one of the youngest participants. For the first time this century, none of the Dukurs brothers will compete in the Olympic skeleton tournament; however, Martins is assisting the British team, which has several contenders for gold medals.
In cross-country skiing, four years ago at the Beijing Olympics, Eiduka finished 23rd in the 10-kilometer race, although the competition was held in the classical style. In freestyle at the 10-kilometer distance, Eiduka has finished in the top ten four times at World Cup stages, including a fifth place here in Val di Fiemme two years ago.
In luge, the last competitions of the Olympic program will take place on Thursday. On Tuesday, Elina Ieva Bota won the first and so far only medal for the Latvian delegation — a silver. It is planned that the relay will feature athletes who showed the best results in individual competitions — Bota, Kristers Aparjods, Martins Bots/Robert Plume, and Marta Robežniece/Kitija Bogdanova.
Aparjods and Bots/Plume, along with Eliza Tiruma, won bronze medals at the Beijing Olympics. Debuting in the Olympic program in women's doubles, these athletes will also compete in the team relay for the first time.
In short track at a distance of 1000 meters, both Latvians — Cruzbergs and Berzins — reached the quarter-finals. The top two participants from each quarter-final, as well as the two with the best results among those finishing third, will advance to the semi-finals.
In the hockey tournament, where players from the National Hockey League (NHL) returned after a 12-year hiatus, Latvia will start its Group C match against the USA at the central venue of the tournament, "PalaItalia," at 22:10, while on the second venue "Fiera Milano Rho," future opponents of the Latvians — Germany and Denmark — will meet at the same time.
All 12 teams will participate in the playoffs, with the top four teams from the group stage advancing directly to the quarter-finals.
The Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo will last until February 22.
Leave a comment