Klaebo claims first 10km world title to make it triple gold in Trondheim

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) made it three gold medals in three events at the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Trondheim, Norway as he won the Men's 10km Interval Start Classic in another display of dominance on Tuesday.

In heavy snowfall, the 28-year-old Trondheim local beat his teammate Erik Valnes by 8.8 seconds to claim his first world title in the event as Harald Oestberg Amundsen completed another all-Norwegian podium.

"It was hard. The conditions were really tough but I think that they've done a really good job with the tracks," Klaebo said.

The overall World Cup leader had come into the home championships with three individual gold medals to his name, all won in the Sprint. Less than a week later, he has doubled his total tally and at six world titles, he passes Bjoern Dahlie (NOR) to take the second place in the individual Cross-Country medal standings, one world title short of leader Petter Northug (NOR), at seven.

It is the second World Championships gold medal in a distance race for Saturday's Skiathlon winner Klaebo, whose last 10km triumph was in December 2023.

The rain that had made the tracks icy and fast in the first days of competition had turned into snow, to the joy of fans around the Granaasen course, who added several snowmen to the already big crowds.

For the skiers, however, the snow meant slower tracks and a challenge for the wax technicians, who needed to make sure that the skis could both push and glide.

"I felt like I was struggling in the last part," Klaebo said.

"I heard that I was in the lead with one second and I was three seconds behind, it was back and forth throughout the whole last lap. Then at the end, I was able to push really, really hard and managed to get a gap that was enough for winning the race."

Sweden's Edvin Anger, who won his first World Cup race in January, had made "one of my best Classic 10k races ever" to take the lead with a 21.7-second margin down to the previous No.1, Cyril Faehndrich of Switzerland.

Starting as number 46, however, meant that the big names behind him would know what time they had to beat and from the leader's chair, the 190cm tall Swede could see Klaebo, in bib No.56, storm towards the victory, beating Anger by 14.2 seconds.

"It's tough to go out first when you don't have so many times to go on and today, when it is a close race, it is better to go a little further back," Anger said.

The 22-year-old Sprint ace was 3.2 seconds outside of the time of Amundsen, in bib No.60, having to settle for a fourth place and a continued chase for a first World Championships podium.

"Right now it's tough to find some happy feelings when I'm like three seconds from the medals," Anger said.

He had been in a silver medal position halfway through the race, half a second outside of Klaebo's time.

"That's hard but it's definitely one of my best Classic 10k races ever so I'm happy with that. Right now I only want to be on the podium though, but not today."

It was an emotional silver medal for Valnes, who had missed Thursday's Sprint due to back problems and was in tears after the impressive comeback in the heavy snow.

"It was really tough conditions. It was really hard to ski fast so if you put all the power into the double poling, it just goes straight through the snow," he said.

"You have to be gentle to the snow and not use too much power at every stride, so it was tricky but I'm so happy that I could manage to have some power throughout the whole race."

The 28-year-old had won a Sprint silver at his first World Championships, in Oberstdorf (GER) in 2021, where he also won the Team Sprint gold medal with Klaebo. Planica (SLO) 2023, however was a disappointment for Valnes, who finished 11th in the Sprint, having to wait two years for another chance to get back to a World Championships podium.

Valnes, with start number 58, had been in third place at the 5km mark, 3.5 seconds behind Anger, but paced himself well to claim his second individual World Championships medal, four years after the first one.

"The previous (World) Championships in Planica was a disaster for me, it was just some sad days," Valnes said.

Sweden's William Poromaa did his best to try to break into the Norwegian dominance. The 24-year-old Planica 2023 50km Classic bronze medallist, with start number 62, was in second place at 9.2km, almost two second ahead of Valnes, but struggled in the last stretch of the race. 

Losing more than eight seconds to Valnes in the last 800m, Poromaa had to settle for a sixth place, 15.3 seconds behind the winner.

Martin Loewstroem Nyenget (NOR) had also had a medal within reach when he came into the last hundred meters of the race, when he fell in a turn at the last peak before heading down towards the stadium. Losing about five seconds in the fall, the home skier had to settle for a fifth place as Amundsen, six positions behind him, took the last spot on the podium.

"I knew that it was only two or three seconds for a seconds spot and then I saw that Nyenget fell in the last top," Amundsen said.

"Very sad for him but I also had a good finish compared to Edvin Anger and William Poromaa and that gives me a bronze so that's quite amazing."

It was the second bronze medal at Trondheim 2025 for Amundsen, who had finished third in the Skiathlon. The defending overall World Cup champion had left Saturday's race with a bloody scar on his cheek after crashing by the finish line. He still thought that his second medal of the championships had been a tougher one to win.

"It was brutal," the 26-year-old said.

"It was maybe the toughest conditions I'd ever done a ski race in, but on the other hand, I think it was quite fair conditions – it was the same weather all race.

Faehndrich, who had finished in 48th place in the Skiathlon, made by far the best individual World Championships result of his career as he finished in seventh place as the best non-Scandinavian skier. At Planica 2023, his best finish had been a 42nd place in the 15km Free.

Michal Novak (CZE), Mika Vermeulen (AUT) and Ville Ahonen (FIN) completed the top-10.

The Trondheim 2025 Cross-Country action continues on Wednesday with the Team Sprint Classic.

Click here for full results from the Men's 10km Interval Start Classic and here to see the the schedule.