Photo: Bildbyrån
Johanna Hagström has been the surprise of the season so far on the women’s side.
She leads the sprint cup after a first and a second place in the opening two races. In Davos, she looks set to miss the relay – but may run the sprint.
– We’d rather have braces and a waist belt in this situation, says women’s coach Andreas Domeij to Expressen.
With Lynn Svahn and Maja Dahlqvist away due to illness it was felt a given that Johanna Hagströmthe big exclamation point of the season so far, would get a place in Sweden’s sprint relay team for Friday’s team competition in Davos, Switzerland. She won the sprint in Ruka and came second in Lillehammer. But fate wanted otherwise.
Johanna Hagström is not in the sprint relay
She had been looking forward to the first sprint relay of her career at the World Cup. Considering the initial results, it was a gigantic shock that Johanna Hagström was not in either the A or B team when the relay pairs were presented. That the reigning world champions Jonna Sundling and Emma Ribom had to camp together was perhaps no great surprise, but that the newcomers Ingrid Hallquist and Ebba Stenman took a place in the second team instead of Hagström caused many to start thinking.
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Especially given that the sprint star really indicated that she wanted to compete and was extra keen to make her relay debut at the highest level.
– I have never run a sprint relay before in the World Cup. Only the SM and the Götaland Championships. So it will be exciting. I don’t really know how to do it, she said in Expressen’s podcast Vallaboden a few days ago.
Double announcement about Johanna Hagström
The women’s coach Andreas Domeij says that there is a reason why Hagström is not in the squad for the sprint relay. She is in another country. The 26-year-old is still at home in Sweden.
– She woke up yesterday morning and felt that there was possibly something going on in her body. We’d rather have braces and a waist belt in this situation, he tells Expressen.
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What makes the whole situation a little unclear is that Hagström is still up for Saturday’s sprint, despite the symptoms of illness. If she feels a little better on Friday, she will fly down to Switzerland in the evening.
– The body has felt good and responded well now. We are looking forward to bringing down a super-tagged Johanna, says Domeij, who also says that Hagström was disappointed at not being able to take part in the relay.
– She was really looking forward to driving, so it’s very sad for her and for us as a team. But we’d better be extra careful.
Hope that Johanna Hagström recovers and that she can run the sprint on Saturday. She is in such great shape. So it would have been powerful to see her continue on the beaten path.
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