Golberg gets golden end to Planica 2023 with 50km mass start victory

Paal Golberg showed why he is the world's best distance skier right now as he won the men's 50km mass start classic at the 2023 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica, Slovenia on Sunday.

The 32-year-old World Cup distance No.1 finished one second before compatriot Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, to claim his third world title in Planica. Sweden's William Poromaa won bronze.

Golberg argued this could be the biggest victory of his career.

"It's easy to say yes (to that) right now," he said.

"To win the 50km in classic style is every skier's dream. To win at the world champs' is even bigger."

Golberg can look back at a successful run in the Slovenian mountains. He won silver behind Klaebo in the sprint, then teamed up with the overall World No.1 to claim gold medals in the team sprint and 4x10km relay before finishing off the championships with his first individual world title.

"It's been a dream, for sure. To win an individual medal has been a big goal for me and I was lucky to do it in the first race and have my shoulders down (for the rest of the competitions)," Golberg said.

"Today I had everything to win and had a really, really good day with good skis so I'm so happy."

A large group stayed together for most of the race, for a major part of it with Golberg doing the hard job of pushing the pace in the front. Finland's Iivo Niskanen who had won the event at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, had made attempts to break up the group but with five kilometres left of the race, the nine front skiers were within five seconds of each other.

"The pace wasn't that high, it was a steady pace and I was just making sure that the pace didn't go down throughout the race," Golberg said.

"My only concern was that I could drink enough throughout the race but I felt really good. I had the best position at the end and a lot of power as well, so I'm super happy."

Coming into the last kilometre, Golberg and Klaebo were side by side, with Poromaa and Sweden's Calle Halfvarsson chasing less than a second behind. Niskanen had run out of steam and was left to fight for the fifth-place with Norway's Didrik Toenseth and Martin Loewstroem Nyenget.

Golberg had saved enough energy to keep the world's best sprinter behind him in the final stretch as three-time Planica 2023 champion Klaebo had to settle for a silver.

"I did my very best at the last part there," Klaebo said about the unusual event of him going into a sprint without winning it.

"We were quite a lot of people working as hard as we could for the medals here and Paal was really strong at the end so I'm satisfied with being second today. I did my very best and it wasn't good enough."

Klaebo had crossed the finish line first at the last world championships in Oberstdorf, Germany, in 2021, looking like he was going to join compatriot Petter Northug as the only skiers to have won the sprint and the marathon at the same championships, but got disqualified for obstruction. This time he stuck to the main group and managed to keep Poromaa behind him to claim silver two tenth of a second ahead of the Swede.

Klaebo was surprised that the pace had not been higher for most of the race, giving many skiers a chance to follow the front group into the last lap.

"The pace was high in the last lap but it wasn't that high in the first five or six of them," he said.

"Iivo did a little bit of an attack there but the pace was still not that high.

"I had expected more, to be honest. I thought that it was going to go a little bit faster but I think we've got a lot of people out there who were really tired. The tracks out there were pretty tough but the conditions make it even tougher. That makes it a really tough 50k. Even though you don't feel that tired, your body is a little destroyed, but I'm satisfied for sure."

Poromaa had kept his cool throughout the race and stormed towards the front duo in the last sprint. With a couple more metres to race, he could arguably have upgraded his bronze medal to a silver. That did not stop the Swedish 22-year-old from celebrating his first world championships medal – and the first from a Swedish men's skier in Planica – as if it was a gold.

"It means a lot," said Poromaa, who grabbed the bronze 0.4 second before teammate Halfvarsson.

"Everyone at home cheers for me and want me to do my best. Today I make the podium, it means the world for me and I know it means the world for those at home also that are cheering for me and hoping for a medal."

Nyenget had been called up to replace Sjur Roethe, who had caught a cold, and thanked for the opportunity by finishing fifth before Niskanen as Toenseth claimed the seventh place.

Norway, with four skiers in the top-seven, have dominated the men's competitions in Planica. As the world championships conclude the Norwegian men have won all six events, claiming 12 of 18 medals – with Golberg, Klaebo and fellow three-time gold medallist Simen Hegstad Krueger, who was not selected for the last event, as their main men.

As Nordic cross-country superpower will try to match those figures in two years, they will get support from even more fans than in Planica as the 2025 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships will be held in Trondheim, Norway.

Click here for full results from the men's 50km mass start classic.