Norwegian titles for Riiber, Hansen and Schmid/Moan

The past weekend had the Norwegian national championships in the Mass Start, Ladies and Team Sprint categories on schedule in Trysil.

While Jarl Riiber spearheaded a rookie podium in the Mass Start event, Gyda Westvold Hansen took the Ladies’ title. Veterans Jan Schmid and Magnus Moan prevailed in the Team Sprint.

The Mass Start event saw a superb effort by youngster Lars Haldvan Buraas on the track, who arrive at the finish one second before veteran and well-known fast skier Magnus Moan. Riiber continued in fine form on the cross-country track and captured the third place, +0:35 seconds behind Buraas. Fellow rookie Jens Lurås Oftebro reached the finish 44 seconds after Buraas and Truls Johansen started his jumping campaign from position five, with eleven points to make up.

Jarl Riiber had the by far best jump of the competition and with another 123.3 points, his point total reached 234.6. He won the competition by 13.9 points and left silver to Jens Lurås Oftebro who added 110.2 points to his point tally in the jumping part. Leif Torbjørn Næsvold jumped to the podium from rank seven as he gained 107.9 points in the jumping part and stayed three points ahead of veteran Moan, who had to be satisfied with the fourth place in the end.

Race Results

Gyda Westvold Hansen crowned herself the queen of Norwegian Nordic Combined after an amazing cross-country race that had her make up one minute and four seconds on jumping winner Thea Minyan Bjørseth on the 5 km track. Bjørseth had jumped 54 metres on the K 75 bakken in Trysil. Hansen, however, had the second-fastest time on the track with 17:03 and reached the finish line 13 seconds ahead of Bjørseth. Oda Leiråmo improved her sixth intermediate rank to the bronze position and finished one minute and 53 seconds behind Hansen.

Ida Marie Hagen stormed to rank four from position eight with the fastest cross-country time of 16:13. Marte Leinan Lund was fifth, Mathilde Oustad sixth, Mari Leinan Lund seventh and Thea Øihaugen eighth.

In the Team Sprint, the veteran duo of Jan Schmid and Magnus Moan captured the victory for Sør-Trøndelag I. After jumping 64 and 65 metres, Moan and Schmid held 91.9 points and started their race from the third position. With clearly the best cross-country time of 43:49, Schmid and Moan finished their race 37 seconds ahead of Lars Halvdan Buraas and Jens Lurås Oftebro, who started for Team Akershus I. Buraas and Oftebro showed 62,5 and 69,5 metres and started from the pole position.

The third team on the podium was Sør-Trøndelag 2 consisting of Simen Kvarstad and Espen Bjørnstad.  While they lost their second position after the jumping part to Moan/Schmid and Buraas/Oftebro, the duo outsprinted Viktor Steen Eriksen and Jarl Magnus Riiber for the third place by one second.