When in Norway: Podium sweep by Krüger, Holund and Nyenget
Dec 04, 2021·Cross-Country
At today’s 15km around the course setting in the Birkebeineren stadium in Lillehammer, it was the Distance experts time to shine. In the first Interval start in Free technique of the season, the Norwegian squad were ready to set the pace on home soil.
Simen Hegstad Krüger reports back after a tough start into the season. The 28 year-old current Vice-Olympic Champion in 15km F from PyeongChang 2018 had to cope with a 74th rank at Ruka’s 15km in Classic technique last weekend and was therefore thrilled to have proved his skills again:
“It was such a tough race and a hard fight with Holund today. He was staring 30 second ahead of me and I saw him in front of me and so I was fighting all the way to the finish. Being standing on top again .. I was struggling a bit at the start of the season so it is even better to have such a good race today.”
Hans Christer Holund had an intermediate first half of the race. But the current World Champion in 15km F sped up heading into the third lap. “It was incredible, and I am really satisfied with the race and my shape. It’s an Olympic season so it’s important to ski fast now that we can come to the Olympics. We have a really strong team so we need to perform to qualify,” Hans Christer concluded his fight for the top spots.
Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget faced a tough preparation period in late summer when he was infected with Covid-19. A one-month quarantine set him back in his training schedule. Looking back to this cut in preparation, facing an Olympic season, Martin was almost lost for words to describe what his third place meant to him today: “To believe in yourself is real hard if you have such problems in the pre-season. But today is amazing and I am really happy now. I felt that my shape was good for the last couple of weeks but this distance is usually quite tough for me so it was hard believing that I could be on the podium.”
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