Simen Hegstad Krüger together with Johannes Hösflot Kläbo was the ski king at the World Championships in Planica. On Wednesday, we saw no less than a quadruple win from Norway, and a fifth win was not far away.
Roope Visuri,
Laura Arffman,
Petra Manner
Norwegian Simen Hegstad Krüger took Planica at the World Championships and his second gold medal when he was first in the freestyle 15 km race on Wednesday. Kruger won Harald Östberg Amundsen with 5.3 seconds.
Krüger was clearly in the lead for a long time. At the end, Amundsen had a tight gap of more than 10 seconds, but Krüger held his ground.
According to the 29-year-old Norwegian, the battle for victory was too tight.
– I was tired at the end. I knew I attacked too much in the middle of the race. It paid off a bit in the end. Fortunately, I had a big enough lead, Krüger described to Urheilu.
On Friday, Krüger had already won the combined race by 12.2 seconds before Johannes Hösflot Kläboa.
Krüger and Kläbo are now the men of two World Cup gold medals in Planica. The Norwegian’s story as Planica’s second skiing king is interesting. He got the crown last season just before the Beijing Olympics.
However, Krüger still made it to the Games. He won the bronze medal in the 50 km race in freestyle skiing. Planica has won the first two world championships of his career, but the preparation was again not the best possible.
Krüger fell ill with corona after skiing the Tour de Ski at the turn of the year.
– It wasn’t ideal, but I still had enough time to recover. Corona has no longer affected, Krüger said.
The superiority of the Norwegians is an ungrateful situation
Norway took no less than a quadruple victory in the day’s competition. Hans Christer Holund was third. Johannes Hösflot Kläbo was left out of the medals in fourth place. Even the fifth victory was not far away. William Poromaa however, prevented it by placing Kläbon and Sjur Röthen between.
Norwegian men have won all four trips in Planica so far.
– Of course we want to do our best. I’m really proud of our team. We have been training hard and pushing each other forward with Holund and Amundsen. Now we are struggling in the same way in the biggest event of the season and we were on the podium, Krüger beamed.
Sports expert Kalle Lassila took a strong stance on the superiority of the Norwegians in Urheilustudio.
– It’s absolutely shocking. On the other hand, they themselves know that it is not necessarily a perfect situation for the species. But top sport is that every day everyone tries everything possible to be as good as possible. It is somehow an ungrateful situation for them as well.