Results Blink Festivalen (NOR)

On Thursday, 6th August, Norways most popular Roller Skiing festival, the Blinkfestival started with the "Lysebotn Opp" competition as a warm-up. In this years 15th anniversary edition, only Norwegian athletes were allowed to start due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

The first victory of the weekend was taken by Therese Johaug closely followed by Heidi Weng and Marie Helene Fossesholm and Simen Hegstad Krüger, Hans Christer Holund and Haavard Moseby. The scenic route near the hosts home town of Sandnes awaited not only with altitude meters but hot and sunny summer weather. The perfect start for a summer sports festival.

Friday was the day to shine for the Sprint stars. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo left no questions open about his strong shape in the shorter distance disciplines. He impressed with spot on technique and already gave a insight on his current status in the middle of training season. Nevertheless he was chased by young Norwegian Sprint rockets through the duel finals. Gjøran Tefre and Klæbo delivered a superb final heat whereas Klaebo took the victory before Tefre and Erik Valnes. The fight for the victory was less dominated on the womens competitions as a strong competitor field fought for every centimeter of race track. Experienced Maiken Caspersen Falla entered the final duel heat after a photo finish with Kristine Stavås who finished the race in third position. Falla skied against Mathilde Skjærdalen Myhrvold in the grand final heat and won Blinks Sprint competition.

Spectators could follow the entire sports festival during a 20hrs coverage of the whole weekend through Norways national TV station NRK. NRK offers a archive function where the races can be watched as a recap. Click here to find the NRK BLINK archive.

Saturdays distance competition over 10km C marked the final individual race day for the Norwegian Cross-Country team. With an individual start, all eyes were on Therese Johaug as the potential winner of the day on the 2.5km course. But as the strong young Sprinter candidates on the previous day, experienced Therese Johaug had a tough job keeping up with Norways distance talents. At the intermediate times, Johaug, Tiril Udnes Weng and Helene Marie Fossesholm stuck to each other. At the final stretch, Weng managed to gain time and finished the race 3.9 seconds before young Helene Marie Fossesholm and 12 seconds to third placed Therese Johaug.

Also in the mens competition, the racers had no spare seconds to loose. Haavard Moseby set the time to beat thanks to a strong performance during the 15km C race. Emil Iversen and also Simen Hegstad Krüger fought hard to top the time but had to finish the race in 4th (Krüger) and 5th (Iversen) position. Also in the 15km races, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo proved a determined and spot on technique and managed to ski the needed seconds of Moseby's time. Klæbo also takes home the 15km C victory 0.2 seconds before Moseby and Daniel Stock in third.

Find all information about BLINK's festivalen here.