Svahn and Klaebo claim sprint wins as skiers leave Canmore wanting more

Linn Svahn (SWE) and Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) were the stars of the farewell party for the competitions in Canmore, Canada on Tuesday as they both won their fifth Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup sprint victory this season.

In the women's sprint classic final, Svahn and her teammate Jonna Sundling came first into the home straight with Norway's Kristine Stavaas Skistad chasing them. Then the 24-year-old Swede showed why she is on top of the World Cup sprint standings, blasting away from her two competitors to claim the victory 2.13 seconds before them.

Skistad and Sundling finished in the same time but the Norwegian, who won Saturday's sprint free, was awarded the second place after a photo finish.

"It was nice to ski today and an incredible team result again, it's amazing to be with the Swedish girls," said Svahn, who was one of four Swedes in the women's final.

In Saturday's sprint free races, many skiers had held back until the very last stretch of the race, making sure to not waste too much energy pulling the field. On Tuesday, the pace was higher.

Early in the race, Sundling had set off at a brutal pace with Svahn and Skistad following, as Kerttu Niskanen (FIN), Maja Dahlqvist (SWE) and Emma Ribom (SWE) fell behind.

"We wanted a high pace, that's maybe our strongest weapon, so we wanted to go fast," Svahn said.

"And Jonna is so incredibly strong to go fast all the way and I felt that I had the finish, so it felt good to cross the finish line first."

After four consecutive sprint victories since the 30 December last year in Toblach, Italy, Svahn had broken the streak on Saturday when she had to settle for a third place.

The second time she got awarded a white Canmore cowboy hat on the podium she was in a better mood.

"I think I will be happier with this one than the last one, so it's good," she said.

Svahn had been surprised of the big support from the fans in the stands as the World Cup returned to Canmore for the first time since 2016.

"After today I think I love it here," she said.

"I understand that people want to cheer for their home team, and of course Jessie (Diggins, USA) and everyone from North America, but I've seen incredibly many Swedes here. Everyone is really friendly and cheer for everybody. It's nice to compete with a lot of audience."

Skistad said she lost the race in the last downhill section. Sundling has been the fastest in the qualifications at six consecutive sprint competitions but the Olympic champion has yet to claim her first victory this season. She was before Skistad for most of the final stretch but the Norwegian took her by surprise and got ahead of her in the last metres of the race.

Sundling was still happy for grabbing her fifth podium this season.

"It's nice to be back on the podium. It feels like we had a really strong team also so I'm really happy about that," the 29-year-old said.

"I could follow my tactics and ski as I wanted so that was really good. I'm happy that I had the power left in the final because we were skiing fast from the beginning in the quarterfinals too."

Niskanen finished fourth, 3.53 seconds behind the winner, as Dahlqvist and Ribom, with little recovery from a tough semifinal, got the fifth and sixth place respectively.

Overall World Cup leader Jessie Diggins was eliminated in the quarterfinals but still leaves Canmore to compete at home in Minneapolis, USA, wearing the yellow overall leader bib.

She won the 15km mass start free on Friday and was very happy with the competitions in Canmore.

"I do love Canmore. It's obviously a gorgeous place but it's also a really cool town and it's been so fun. This atmosphere has been amazing, there's been tonnes of people here and the cheering has been really spectacular," said Diggins, who is 260 points before runner-up Svahn in the overall standings.

"I'm half Canadian so it feels like it's my home World Cup too."

Svahn extended her lead in the sprint standings, where she has a 178-point advantage over runner-up Skistad.

In the men's competition, Klaebo had expected many competitors to play tactical games to try to avoid going down the last downhill section in first place.

But instead, many of the races had been fast-paced as skiers had tried to break away from the field early.

In the final, Klaebo tried to shake off the rest of the field but got dragged back in by his teammate, sprint World Cup leader Erik Valnes, and ended up being the first athlete coming down the last hill when many competitors slowed down.

"The final was tricky, I felt the pace was high all the way to the top. Then when we started to go downhill everyone stopped again, then everything happened the same way it went on the sprint three days ago," Klaebo said.

"I just tried to be in the front and push quite hard. My plan was actually to try to push really hard at the top, then I missed a pole and thought 'I'll just wait until the end'."

On the home straight, France's Richard Jouve made a move next to Klaebo but the Norwegian 27-year-old, who had been passed in the last metres of the 20km mass start classic on Sunday, refused to let it happen again.

Showcasing his strong double poling, Klaebo managed to push away from the Frenchman to take his fifth sprint triumph this season by a 0.47-second margin – the second one in Canmore after winning Saturday's freestyle sprint. Valnes finished third.

"I was just annoyed when I saw the skis of Richard on my left. I was like; 'oh no, not again'. I lost a similar finish on Sunday so I was really eager to win today and I had really good skis," said Klaebo, whose triumph was his 76th in the World Cup.

Jouve said the only tactic he had had worked out.

"The tactic was simple; don't be the first in the last downhill. So I tried to manage the others to be in second," the French 29-year-old said.

Admitting that it was "very" frustrating to go against Klaebo in a sprint, he was still happy with his performance.

"It's always a pleasure to compete against the best skier in the world. I try at every race to beat him but it's very difficult," Jouve said.

"I love the track here and the mountains are beautiful so I'm very happy to be on the podium today."

Valnes, who still is one point ahead of Klaebo in the men's sprint World Cup rankings, said he had lacked the energy needed to fight for the first place.

"Those who know me can see that I was a tired guy today. I wasn't feeling quite fresh and didn't have that powerful double poling but overall it (the performance) is quite good," he said.

"I'm fit for three races (in a weekend) so it shouldn't be a problem but it's been a long season and I've raced 30 races this season, so I think it's more about that."

Finland's Lauri Vuorinen and Joni Maki finished fourth and fifth respectively as Sweden's Calle Halfvarsson had to settle for the sixth place. For both Finns, it was their best individual result this season.

As the Canmore event came to an end, Valnes, and many competitors with him, said they hope to be back soon.

"I hope it will be less than eight year until the next event here. I like it here, nice courses, especially the distance race courses, it is really tough, we like that."

See full results from the women's sprint classic here and from the men's sprint classic here.

Follow FIS Cross-Country on Youtube here.