Johannes Hösflot Kläbon the omission was irrelevant for the host country in terms of Norway’s success at the Cross-Country World Cup in Lillehammer. On Friday, Norway took nine of the ten top spots in men’s freestyle skiing.
On top of everything, the Briton finished fourth Andrew Musgrave has become very Norwegian, having lived in the country since 2010. The third and second place went to long-term successful For Hans Christer Holund and To Didrik Tönsethbut the top spot was taken by an unknown name, Iver Tildheim Andersen.
– It feels great. I didn’t think I would win. Then I heard that Kläbo is in pain and the others can fight for the win. I took advantage of my opportunity. People expected something normal, but I achieved something special, Andersen told NRK.
Before his victory in Lillehammer, Andersen, 22, had skied only one World Cup race in his career, fifty last spring at Holmenkollen. At that time, the ranking was 24th.
– Quite a crazy list of results. This was like a Norwegian Cup race. I thought Andersen was going to ski down on himself in the beginning, but he kept up the pace well. This is a bigger achievement than any of his previous ones, stated an NRK expert (you switch to another service) Torgeir Björn.
Of course, Andersen has been successful in the junior series, especially in freestyle skiing. In 2020, he won the youth world championship at 30 kilometers. In 2019, in Lahti, he achieved World Championship bronze in the under-20 freestyle skiing category.
However, the Oslo skier has avoided much media attention – until today.
– I just realized that this will quickly become really scary. From now on, people expect me to win and win. It’s going to be tough, Andersen said the Norwegian newspaper VG (you will switch to another service).
According to Holund, Norway’s superiority is a bad thing
Norway’s dominance was seen from time to time even before Russia was excluded from international competitions. For example, in the combined competition of the Lahti World Cup in 2021, Norwegian men took the top four places.
Iivo Niskanen can at least beat Norwegians’ carts with traditional skiing. But now, when the Finnish star is sick and the Russians are out, Norway’s dominance jumps out sharply, especially in free skiing.
Supremacy doesn’t arouse squeals of joy even in the Norwegian camp.
– That is not a good thing. It doesn’t look very good with so many Norwegians at the top. However, I must remind you that one strong country is not included here. In a normal season, we would hardly have nine men in the top ten, said Hans Christer Holund, who finished third, to NRK.
He says the same Emil Iversenwho in his 12th place was only the tenth best Norwegian.
– This is bad for the sport. But we knew this was how it would go.
Swedish William Poromaa managed to overtake Iversen on the results list, 11th.
– Yes, it makes me angry when so many Norwegians are ahead of me, Poromaa said According to Aftonbladet (you will switch to another service).
– This is shameful for the sport. It’s sad that only Norwegians are at the top, Calle Halfvarsson tripped his national team colleague.
The Finns shrugged their shoulders at the superiority of the Norwegians.
– If you look at Lillehammer’s results from the last five years, the Norwegians have usually celebrated here. In part, this early season plays into that because they have so much competition. They also have local knowledge, so the skis and lubrication are fine, stated the best Finnish man of the day, Lauri Lepistö.
Such superiority is only possible in competitions held in Norway, as the host country is allowed to bring a national team of six skiers to the competition in addition to the national team of six skiers.
– It makes no sense to take more than six skiers. But now the national group was a good thing for me, because otherwise I wouldn’t even have been able to participate, said Iversen, who failed in the opening of the World Cup in Ruka.
Andersen, who took the win, was one of two skiers under the national quota under the age of 23 in Lillehammer. He immediately gave a strong impression to the coaching staff of the Norwegian national team, who are already discussing the composition of the World Cup team.
– Winning the World Cup on this trip means a ticket to the World Cup. It seems he wants to continue skiing, former top skier and commentator for Norway’s TV2 channel Petter Northug said (you switch to another service).
Finland is far from the top
For Lauri Lepistö, 21st place was the best of his career in the freestyle skiing competition.
– It was okay, I still had power for the last lap, but yes, the trip started to do its job and it started to feel a bit numb, Lepistö commented on his success.
The differences were small, as all six Finnish men covered the distance within 12 seconds of each other. Perttu Hyvärinen was the 24th and Remi Lindholm 26th Lindholm, who started hard, was one and a half seconds behind Hyvärinen.
– It would be easier to blame others, put the skis and the greaser on the spikes and fire the coach, but yes, it is a place to look in the mirror a bit. I kind of froze at the end and I’m not entirely satisfied with that, otherwise it’s an okay day, Remi Lindholm said.
He took the best Finnish ranking of the day Kerttu Niskanen, which was in the women’s 18s. World Cup returner Eveliina Piippo was 21 and Krista Pärmäkoski 27:s.
Niskanen missed out on the US who won the race About Jessie Diggins 51 seconds.
– It didn’t seem so bad. Somehow Napsun felt better than Ruka, but it doesn’t look good in the results. That is the kind of track where you have to ski at your limits all the time. An easy track and you have to have a lot of speed all the time. I was far away today, Niskanen stated.
Piippo, 24, who was dropped from the national team groups, described his performance as moderate.
– I was prepared for a more catastrophic result. This is pretty nice that way. If I could continue in these competitions, Piippo said.
The Lillehammer World Cup continues on Saturday with the freestyle sprints.