Klaebo ‘living a dream’ with fourth gold in Trondheim as cross-country immortality beckons

Four events, four gold medals at a world championships in his hometown. No wonder Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) feels like he is “living in a dream right now”.

By winning the Men’s Team Sprint Classic, the undisputed star of cross-country skiing drew level with compatriot and occasional training partner Petter Northug on 13 world championship titles.

With Norway’s men expected to dominate Thursday’s 4x7.5km Relay, only a brave person would bet against Klaebo making it a clean sweep of gold medals in the 50km Mass Start Freestyle on Sunday.

Another rainy day in Trondheim couldn’t stop another huge home crowd from turning up to witness their hero make history. And while Norway’s women finished a disappointing fifth, the men went into their race as heavy favourites, with Klaebo reuniting with Eric Valnes – who had been in danger of missing the whole championships with a back injury – the pair having won Olympic gold together at Beijing 2022.

With a changeover between each of the six 1.4km laps and a treacherous final corner, surely only an on-course calamity could cost the Norwegians gold. And so it proved as they dominated from start to finish.

On lap four, Valnes took Norway’s lead out from 3.5 seconds to 8.8s. Klaebo stretched this to 10.5s on lap five, leaving Valnes with a virtual victory procession on the final circuit. They followed this up with a stadium lap of honour after clinching gold.

“It was amazing,” Valnes said. “It was such an intense race, with the atmosphere so loud all over the track, so it was goosebumps from before the start until after the finish.”

Klaebo said; “I am enjoying every single moment of it. Being a teammate with Erik [Valnes] today was amazing and we had amazing skis, and the crowd as always is as good as it can be so thank you very much, we are so, so satisfied.”

The race for second place was much closer, with 10 teams within ten seconds of each other after lap three. One by one they dropped back until, with 0.5km to go, it became a three-way shootout between Finland, Italy and Sweden.

Federico Pellegrino (ITA), the individual sprint silver medallist, lost ground on the final bend, leaving individual bronze medallist Lauri Vuorinen (FIN) in prime position to take silver. But Edvin Anger (SWE), who has had a disappointing championships up to now, wasn’t giving up without a fight.

The giant Swede came roaring past Pellegrino on the line and almost took Vuorinen with a desperate lunge. It was the Finn who prevailed by 0.01s in a photo finish, though – perhaps fittingly given he works as a photographer – including at Paris 2024 – to supplement his income from cross-country skiing.

Vuorinen said: “Edvin has a better stretch than me but my partner Risto[matti] Hakola came and hugged me and asked me if we were second or third but straightaway I said: 'we were second'.”

After finishing fourth in Wednesday’s 10K, Anger insisted he was “not at all bitter” about missing out on silver – especially after Sweden had lost ground earlier in the race when Oskar Svensson dropped a pole. “A medal means everything for us and then whether it is a silver or a bronze doesn’t make a huge difference,” Anger said. “This bronze medal tastes very, very well.

Agonisingly, it was Italy who missed out on the podium by just 0.29s. “It hurts a lot,” Pellegrino said after finishing fourth alongside Davide Graz. “I really believed in this race. I had only to be faster at the end and catch the medal before the others but I had three stronger athletes today. It was good to fight, for sure. In the uphill, I still felt incredibly strong but they are younger and faster and that’s it. Sorry for Davide, because he was ready to win his first medal but he will have many, many other chances.”

The cross-country skiing at the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships continues on Thursday with the Men’s 4x7.5km Relay.

For the full results from Trondheim, click here.