There has been extremely tough competition for the sprint places in the Swedish squad for the cross-country WC in Planica.
Maja Dahlqvist, Johanna Hagström, Emma Ribom and Jonna Sundling were already selected. Anna Dyvik would have liked to have taken the last place.
But then Linn Svahn made a strong comeback after almost two years without a World Cup race and got the coveted WC ticket.
— In the last two seasons, I have chased those championship places a lot. This year I had decided not to do it, but if I were to make it to the WC, I would be the strongest there, says Anna Dyvik.
— I had a slightly heavier start to the season, but now the form has felt better. I think I would have been in really good shape in a few weeks.
“Didn’t get the chance”
It stings a little more that she was not allowed to run the World Cup sprint in Les Rousses last weekend.
— Of course I was disappointed by that selection, I know I had performed very well there. It would have been fun to join and overtake it, now I didn’t even get the chance, she says.
“Got it”
National team manager Anders Byström understands Dyvik’s disappointment.
– I understand that. But we have had a dialogue with the riders about what was required to get there. Anna did well in the Tour de Ski, but we have so many incredibly good sprinters, says Byström.
– We saw quite early on that Linn Svahn was on her way to something big and she had to show that too.
Anna Dyvik has instead chosen to invest heavily in the SM week in Skövde, which began on Tuesday. And it started well, with a SM gold in the sprint ahead of Moa Ilar and Jenny Solin.
On the men’s side, Olof Jonsson took gold, ahead of Karl-Johan Westberg and Oskar Svensson.