Therese Johaug is the Nordic queen of Oberstdorf
Mar 06, 2021·Cross-Country
For the womens final competition at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf, the 30km course presented itself back in a winter wonderland. 50 starters from 18 nations set out for the 30km C Mass start competition.
The Norwegian duo Heidi Weng and Therese Johaug set the head of the group. Throughout the first climb to the prestigious “Burgstall” hill Therese Johaug managed to ski away from the group. The 32 year-old once more proved to be a league of her own. In her 25th start in a World Ski Championships competition, Johaug managed to stretch the gap to her successors to 16 seconds already in the first lap.
The chasing group was paced by Ebba Andersson (SWE), followed by Heidi Weng (NOR), Frida Karlsson (SWE), Katharina Hennig (GER) and Teresa Stadlober (AUT).
Half way into the race, Hennig lost contact and it was down to 4 skiers chasing for the podium. In the front, Johaug had advanced to a 1.50 minute margin at the ski exchange, 18km into the race.
In the fourth lap, Ebba Andersson crashed with Frida Karlsson in a downhill section and also Heidi Weng got caught. Stadlober managed to stay out of the tangled trio and took her chance to advance up to a 20 second margin.
Recovered from the fall, the trio Andersson, Karlsson and Weng found their way back and overtook Stadlober in the final stretch. The decision for the second place was triggered by Heidi Weng as she once again fired up the Egli hill, leaving Karlsson and Andersson biting hart to catch her.
On the finish stretch, Weng pulled through to second spot and Frida Karlsson took the bronze medal. Immediately after the finish, Karlsson had to go into medical care as after her fall, she had been in severe pain and therefore underwent a checkup on her arm.
Despite strong efforts and a lot of leading work, Ebba Andersson misses the podium by 2 seconds before Teresa Stadlober from Austria.
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