The world of cross-country skiing, and in particular the Slovenian one, is stricken with grief. On Thursday, one of Slovenia’s greatest talents was killed in a traffic accident.
It happened in Norway in the Botheitstunnel, where 19-year-old Hana Mazi Jamnik was hit by a truck when she was on a training trip with the national team.
– The players on the Slovenian national team were on a training trip with the 19-year-old when the accident happened. She was last of the performers.
– I don’t know if the others passed through the tunnel, but if they have followed the same route, then I will assume so, says police deputy Lars Christian Hoff to VG and points out that none of the national team colleagues saw the accident.
The driver of the truck has been stripped of his driver’s license and charged with negligent homicide, and his defense attorney explains that he pleads not guilty to the charges.
The police are investigating the case and will spend the rest of the week interviewing witnesses and carrying out technical investigations, which immediately indicate that the lorry has driven into Jamnik and therefore not that she should have come out onto the road and looked for the contact herself.
Jamnik, who became junior world champion in roller skiing in September, was in Norway when she took part in the Blinkfestivalen in Sandnes last week, which is a summer roller skiing event over several days. And this week she had stayed in Norway with the national team, which is coached by the former Norwegian star, Ola Vigen Hattestad.
Last year she came 12th at the Junior WC on snow, and she was predicted to have a great future as a cross-country skier.
But it wasn’t to be like that, and in Slovenia you naturally mourn the loss:
‘Hana, you will always be in our thoughts. We will miss you,’ writes the Slovenian Ski Federation on its website.
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