Christopher Blevins' almost uncanny winning streak continues at the fifth Short Track World Cup, which took place in Val di Sole on Friday. The US-American, who competes for the Specialized racing team, also won in Italy and once again rode to first place - albeit only by the narrowest of margins. It is his fifth victory in the fifth race de suite. His team-mate from France, Victor Koretzky, finished directly behind him once again. Third place was secured by Canyon rider Luca Schwarzbauer from Germany.

The Swiss guard consisting of Thomas Litscher, Dario Lillo and Lars Forster followed directly behind. Marcel Guerrini finished in ninth place and Vital Albin in tenth. Although the Swiss riders delivered another strong performance, there was no podium finish. Mathias Flückiger (32nd) and Nino Schurter (38th) did not have a good day.

Strong team performance by the Swiss

The picture was similar in the women's race from a Swiss perspective. The podium places were out of reach. They were secured by serial winner Puck Pieterse from the Netherlands, who races for the Alpecin-Deceuninck racing team. Second place went to the Swede Jenny Rissveds from the Canyon team and third place went to the Austrian Laura Stigger from the Specialized racing team. The decision in the women's race was also extremely close, with only a few fractions of a second separating the podium.

Nicole Koller had to settle for fourth place. Her compatriots Alessandra Keller, Sina Frei, Linda Indergand and Steffi Häberlin took 6th to 9th place, meaning that the women's event also saw a strong Swiss team performance, although they were denied a place on the podium.

The boys had to do it

So the youngsters had to step in. Finn Treudler, who rides for Cube, secured a Swiss victory in the U23 class. Nicolas Halter narrowly missed out on the podium in 4th place. Second place in the juniors went to Rens Teunissen van Manen from the Netherlands and third place to Paul Schehl from Germany. In the juniors, things did not go according to plan for the Swiss women. Monique Halter in 13th place was the best-placed Swiss rider. Victory in the women's U23 classification went to Nicole Bradbury. Austria's Katharina Sadnik and Katrin Embacher followed in 2nd and 3rd place.

Link to the detailed results of the XCC World Cup in Val di Sole