Significant effort was made at the Song Festival Grounds to prepare a freestyle sprint course that would reach World Cup standards, despite the arrival of spring and following a mostly mild winter.

Conditions on Tuesday evening, the night before the race, were quite wet. Estonian national team head coach Aivar Rehemaa found the track to be ready for Wednesday, with additional salting to be applied to the artificial snow cover if necessary.

A total of 15 Estonian skiers took part in the freestyle sprint starting list, before a home crowd.

Women's competitors included twins Kaidy and Keidy Kaasiku, Teesi Tuul, Õnnela Rodendau, and Teiloora Ojaste, in addition to Pulles, while the men's lineup was made up of Alvar Johannes Alev, Martin Himma, Christopher Kalev, Henri Roos, Ralf Kivil, Albert Unn, Richard Piho, Lars Piirmann, and Hendrik Peterson.

Karl Sebastian Dremljuga, the only Estonian to reach the top 30 in the World Cup event held in Tallinn two years ago, had to sit out this year's competition due to illness.

Pulles was the only Estonian to advance after the first event of the day, the qualifiers, finishing 29th, 8.35 seconds behind eventual winner Swiss skier Nadine Fähndrich. The last athlete to qualify behind her was Lotta Udnes Weng.

An electrifying atmosphere & passionate crowds turned the Cross-Country Skiing World Cup stage at Tallinn's Song Festival Grounds into a true celebration of sports. #fiscrosscountry #wintersport #worldcuptallinn pic.twitter.com/CKS9NzsblG

— Alar Karis (@AlarKaris) March 19, 2025

Pulles managed to advance through to the quarter-final stage, after securing a strong third place in her heat, but her time of 2:45.72 was not enough to advance further than that and ultimately finished in 16th place.

The Kaasikus finished 45th and 47th, respectively. Tuul (+15.42) placed 51st, Teiloora Ojaste (+29.64) 56th, and Õnnela Rodendau (+40.89) finished last in 58th place.

In the men's qualification, the Estonians missed qualification by four seconds: Martin Himma was 54th, 9.15 seconds behind; Ralf Kivil (+9.23) was 55th; Henri Roos (+9.47) 57th; Christopher Kalev (+12.87) 65th; Albert Unn (+14.71) 70th; Lars Piirmann (+16.34) 72nd; Alvar Johannes Alev (+19.43) 78th; Hendrik Peterson (+25.69) 83rd; and Richard Piho (+53.91) 84th.

Overall victories went to Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (Norway) and Nadine Fähndrich (Switzerland) in the men's and women's competitions, respectively.

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