The sprint race is by Lietha and Perillat-Pessey

The ski mountaineering World Cup weekend hosted by the Pontedilegno-Tonale ski area opened in the spirit of Switzerland and France, where on the opening day there was also glory for the Italian team, brought to the podium by Nicolò Canclini.
The spectacular night sprint race, which also represented an Olympic preview in a prime location of the skialp, crowned winners the Swiss champion Arno Lietha, great favorite on the eve, and the French Célia Perillat-Pessey, who at Ponte di Legno hit the first victory of his career on the top international circuit.
A nuanced goal in the pipeline for Giulia Murada, who saw her dreams of glory slip on the snow. In the final in pink, the blue was clearly in command, but she fell to the ground as she faced the last bend of the course, with the typical regret of the case, despite the awareness of having offered a great performance. Despite her, she only earned her a fifth place. It was her chance to seal her first senior World Cup success.
A light rain, which intensified in the final stages, characterized the race, which took place on the track parterre overlooking the town of Ponte di Legno. A track with steps, inversions and final descent, complete with a jump before the curve that led to the finish line. Four set-up changes.
For the men, all eyes were on the Swiss team, which boasts a great tradition in sprints, with Arno Lietha the undisputed leader of the specialty and already victorious in the first "fast" race of the season, held in Val Thorens. The Swiss athlete did not disappoint and imposed his own law, ninth in qualifying and then in full control of the situation in the heats of the quarterfinals, in the semifinals and also in the six-player final.
Five Azzurri who made it through the qualifiers, including the perky Nicolò Canclini (tenth time) and the young Giovanni Rossi (fourth), who then won their respective quarter-finals, to then secure their pass for the final act thanks to the second and third in his semifinal, behind the other Swiss specialist Iwan Arnold, with the multi-decorated Robert Antonioli fourth and excluded from the games, mocked by his younger teammates in the downhill stretch.
In the final Lietha and Arnold immediately imposed a high pace on the race and finished first and second in order, with Nicolò Canclini doing well in entering the fight for the podium and winning the photo finish on the French Thibaut Anselmet, with Giovanni Rossi excellent fifth in front to the other transalpine Baptiste Ellmenreich. The other two qualified Italians, Nadir Maguet and Rocco Baldini, both finished fourth in their heats in the quarterfinals.
Surprise epilogue, however, in the women's race, which lost in the semifinal one of the most awaited protagonists, the recent winner of the Val Thorens sprint Emily Harrop, victim of a fall.
In the final, Giulia Murada displayed an enviable condition and took command of the operations, first taking the descent that led to the finish area. Her advantage was clear, but the blue was betrayed by the last corner, when the games were over.
The Valtellinese had to postpone the appointment with her first success as a senior in the World Cup, centered instead by the French Célia Perillat-Pessey, flanked on the podium by the Slovakian Marianna Jagercikova and her teammate Lena Bonnel. Fourth was the German Tatjana Paller, with Murada fifth and the Swiss Caroline Ulrich sixth.
Out in the semifinals Mara Martini and Ilaria Veronese, fourth and sixth in their battery, while the thirty of Pejo Lisa Moreschini (tenth in qualifying), Alba De Silvestro, Samantha Bertolina, Silvia Berra and Giulia Compagnoni went out in the quarterfinals.
Rest day tomorrow. On Sunday morning there will be two individual races starting from Passo Paradiso. At 9.45 the start of the men's categories and at 10.15 of the women's, on two tracks with different distances.

The finals

Men's sprint standings: 1. Lietha Arno (Sui) 2'34"044; 2. Arnold Iwan (Sui) 2'42"687; 3. Canclini Nicolò Ernesto (Ita) 2'43"203; 4. Anselmet Thibault (Fra) 2'43"246; 5. Rossi Giovanni (Ita) 2'46"906; 6. Ellmenreich Baptiste (Fra) 3'03"080.
Women's sprint standings: 1. Perillat-Pessey Célia (Fra) 3'20"636; 2. Jagercikova Marianna (Svk) 3'24"462; 3. Bonnel Lena (Fra) 3'27"460; 4. Paller Tatjana (Ger) 3'28"845; 5. Murada Giulia (Ita) 3'30"210; 6. Ulrich Caroline (Sui) 3'33"497.