With 38 days left until the individual sprint at the Olympics in Italy, Johanna Hagström finished third on the same course.
The effort in Val di Fiemme should be enough to qualify for the Olympics, she says, especially since she also won the only previous classic sprint this World Cup winter.
"Yes, you can't have much better conditions for the Olympics. Now I really think I've shown that I should be allowed to race the Olympic sprint here. If I don't get to race it, I don't really understand it," says Johanna Hagström, who is competing for one of four Swedish starting spots.
“A little bit of a snob”
She couldn't really challenge for victory this time.
A jubilant Jasmi Joensuu took her first World Cup victory - 44 hundredths of a second ahead of Nadine Fähndrich of Switzerland.
"Of course it means a lot. Now I have shown that I can win. I have often been told that I am not strong enough in the finals, so this shows that my hard work has paid off," says the Finnish winner.
Hagström was just under two seconds behind Joensuu at the finish. Maja Dahlqvist finished fourth in the final.
"It was great fun, really. Getting to ski here on the Olympic course. And it was fun that we could deliver a little too," says Johanna Hagström.
Moa Ilar had a spot in the final. Then the Swede was placed last in her semifinal after getting in the way of another skater during her semifinal.
"That was a shame. It felt bad to get that news, that you can't go to the final. Because I would have had that spot," says Moa Ilar, who is third in the overall standings ahead of the final Tour de Ski stage.
She finished third in her semifinal, but would have advanced on time. Ilar received the news while watching the second semifinal.
"You'll be disappointed, of course."
Diggins leads big
Ilar doesn't know exactly what happened, but it was probably an incident on the last hill before the race.
"I've probably been in a tight spot at some point, but it's hard to say. I haven't seen it myself."
Overall leader Jessie Diggins of the USA also did not make the final, but has a big lead heading into Sunday's final climb up Alpe Cermis.
Diggins will finish 1.19 minutes ahead of second-place Joensuu and a further 19 seconds ahead of third-place Moa Ilar.
