Andersson kicks back from Covid complications to claim first win since 2023: 'It's been a struggle'

With 11 days left until the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Trondheim, Norway, Ebba Andersson (SWE) showed the home fans in Falun, Sweden that she has found a shape to battle for the medals.

The four-time medallist at the 2023 World Championships in Planica, Slovenia, where she won the 30km Mass Start Classic and 15km Skiathlon, looked ready for more glory in a couple of weeks as she claimed the victory in the Women's 10km Interval Start Classic on Saturday by a clear margin.

"It (the World Championships) has been a big goal for me and something I've been aiming for a long time now," Andersson said.

"Since the last championships in Planica I have known that I am going to race two of the distances in Trondheim so I have tried to prepare as well as I can.

The 27-year-old, who has suffered from health problems after catching Covid last season, beat runner-up Heidi Weng (NOR) by 17.8 seconds to win her first Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup race since December 2023. Germany's Victoria Carl finished third.

"It has been tough for me," said Andersson, whose last World Cup win was a Skiathlon triumph in Trondheim.

"I struggled with Covid last season and after that, the performances have not been as before. But now it feels great again to take this victory and to do it in front of the home crowd."

Finland's Sprint World Cup leader Jasmi Joensuu, with start number 22, had shown that she can do distance racing too as she finished in 29:55.7 to take a seat in the leader's chair. She stayed there for about three minutes, before Friday's Sprint success Linn Svahn (SWE), with bib No.28, beat her by just over two seconds.

Then the distance experts took over. Carl, starting in 38th position, showed why she is No.2 in the overall World Cup standings as she kept extending the gap to Svahn's times, beating the Swede by more than 35 seconds.

From the leader's chair, however, Carl could see another home skier start at a furious pace, only wondering whether Andersson could keep that energy for the entire course. But Andersson, in bib No.46, never slowed down, finishing in 28:49.3 to beat Carl's impressive time by almost half a minute.

It was the eighth World Cup victory for Andersson, whose only previous podium finish this winter had been a second place in the 20km Mass Start Classic in Les Rousses (FRA) in January.

Heidi Weng (NOR) in start number 48, had been ahead of Andersson at the 3.8km mark, but apart from that stayed in the second place the whole race.

Overall World Cup No.1 Jessie Diggins (USA) started in 60th position and knew well what times she had to beat. She started strongly and was in third place ahead of Carl for the first four kilometers but lost the podium spot at 5.4km and in the second half of the race, the top-four positions were unchanged.

Diggins finished 8.6 seconds from the podium, 37.3 seconds behind Andersson, to take the fourth place, pushing down Teresa Stadlober (AUT), who had finished 55.6 seconds behind the winner, to the fifth place. Katharina Hennig of Germany claimed the sixth place, finishing 1:01.2 after Andersson and three seconds before No.7 Svahn. 

Krista Parmakoski (FIN) finished in eighth place, 0.1 of a second faster than Joensuu as Kerttu Niskanen, who has won the event in Falun the past two years, had to settle for a 10th place to make it three times Finland in the top-10.

The World Cup stage in Falun concludes with the 20km Mass Start Free on Sunday – the last international race before the World Championships.

Click here for full results from the Women's 10km Interval Start Classic and here to follow FIS Cross-Country on Youtube.