By Teemu Virtanen

The summer season with roller-ski races is almost over as there are two more Challengers events left. On Sunday this week, Lake Saimaa Roller-ski Marathon will take place in Imatra, Finland, and on the following Saturday, Klarälvsloppet in Karlstad, Sweden, will end the hectic roller-ski racing season.

Since there have been many Challengers roller-ski races, the Ski Classics ranking keeps evolving. Right now, the reigning Champion Lina Korsgren, Team Ramudden, is the leading athlete followed by the male Champion Emil Persson, Lager 157 Ski Team. Tord Asle Gjerdalen, Team XPND Fuel of Norway, is third and Andreas Nygaard, Team Ragde Charge, fourth in the list.

There are three Swedish skiers in the top 10, the first two and Oskar Kardin, Team Ragde Charge, who is in the 5^th position. The rest of the top ten club comes from Norway. The second best female is Emilie Fleten, who now represents Gjerdalen’s team. She is ranked 10^th.

Petter Eliassen, who retired from active skiing after this winter, is still high up with his 8^th place. Ari Luusua from Finland, Team Eksjöhus, is the best non-Scandinavian skier with is 12^th place followed by Maxim Vylegzanin, Russian Winter Team, who is currently ranked as the 18^th best skier.

Interestingly, the five-time Champion Britta Johansson Norgren, Lager 157 Ski Team, finds herself in the 20^thposition, and right behind her is the eternally young Anders Aukland, Team Ragde Charge. The best Central-European athlete is Alexis Jeannerod, who finished his ski career this spring.

All participants of the Visma Ski Classics Challengers events receive points for their SC ranking, which they can check by logging in for free to MyPages.

The results of each race and a list of all Challengers events with already confirmed dates for the season 2021/22 can be found on vismaskiclassics.com.