Andersson historic with third consecutive distance win: 'It almost went by itself'

Ebba Andersson made history as she claimed the first place in the women's 10km individual free at the FIS Cross-Country World Cup in Toblach, Italy, on Saturday.

The triumph makes her the first female Swedish skier to win three consecutive distance races and a favourite in the event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica, Slovenia, later this month.

In the strong winds at the ski resort just south of the Austrian border, Andersson was just a second ahead of USA's Jessie Diggins after the first of two 5km laps. In the second lap, Diggins, who had started five minutes before Andersson, made a strong push and finished as a leader with a 24-second margin. But Andersson was well aware of the American's times and responded well, finishing 13.3 seconds faster than Diggins. Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg from Norway grabbed the third place.

As a sign of Andersson's strong shape right now, the five-time World Cup winner said it feels like she is skiing on autopilot.

"It was a good race," the 25-year-old said.

"I felt that it almost went by itself out there and I just tried to maintain good skiing."

With the world championships starting in just over two weeks, Andersson's shape shows she will be the woman to beat in the distance race.

"I feel so at the moment so I just hope that I can maintain this shape until the championships. It has been the plan all the time to be in my best shape when we are going to compete in Planica," she said.

"I just have to trust my plan and trust that I will hopefully be a bit stronger when it is time to fight for the medals."

Diggins, who had made it to a third place in Friday's sprint, said after the race that she "crashed and hit my knee hard and I can't feel it". The 31-year-old said the sunny weather had brought some challenges onto the course, that mostly goes through forest.

"It made it very interesting and exciting because with the sun, some parts were very slow and slushy and some parts were very fast and icy, so it was either really fast or really hard, so you had to adjust your pacing," she said.

"That made it really challenging but I did the best job that I could."

Diggins was however the first one to congratulate Andersson for her win and has plenty to be happy for. Not only does she look like a medal candidate in many events at Planica. Diggins passed Finland's Kerttu Niskanen in the women's overall World Cup standing and closed the gap to leading Tiril Udnes Weng from Norway, who had to settle for a 29th place in the race. The fight for the crystal globe is on and Diggins, chasing her third overall World Cup title, is only 134 points behind Weng.

"I'm really happy with my shape and my overall fitness, training has been going really well," Diggins said.

"It's been wonderful here in Italy, it's always nice to be here so I've been really happy and in a good place."

Where many Norwegian skiers struggled, veteran Oestberg was Saturday's big success story. The 32-year-old twice Olympic champion won her second podium this season, and the first since finishing second in the 20km free in Davos, Switzerland, on 18 December.

"It was so great to be back on the podium in the World Cup," Oestberg said.

"It was a great race even though it was really hard.

She had the ninth best time half-way through the race but made a strong second lap to claim the third place 4.1 seconds before fourth-placed Nadine Faendrich from Switzerland. Rosie Brennan from USA finished fifth.

"I felt like the first lap was so hard and I thought, 'this is going to be a tough day and I have to just fight for every meter', I didn't believe I was fighting for the podium actually," Oestberg said.

"I went out on the last 5k and thought I'd just ski as good as I can and then fight all the way to the finish, because I knew it was close, even if it'd be a third place or 10th place. I didn't realise it was a podium until I crossed the finish line, so it was great."

Oestberg enjoys being back fighting for podium spots, having been out of action on that level for most of the two previous seasons due to health issues.

"It's been a long way and I'm actually really proud of what I'd done. It's only me knowing how hard it's been and how hard the work has been," she said.

"It's been really tough, especially when I couldn't race at the Olympics last year when my shape was good.

"This (to be back on the podium) means more than anything."

Click here for full results of the women's 10km individual free.