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Tag: Bruksvallarna 10 k classic

  • Outspoken Northug Hits Several Nerves After Bruks 10 k Classic Win

    Outspoken Northug Hits Several Nerves After Bruks 10 k Classic Win

    Petter Northug Jr., in Falun, Sweden. (Photo: FIS/NordicFocus)
    Petter Northug Jr. at 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden. (Photo: FIS/NordicFocus)

    Petter Northug Jr. took it upon himself to stir up some drama in Sweden on Friday when he won the Bruksvallarna 10-kilometer classic race, in, you guessed it, Sweden.

    The 29-year-old Norwegian won the 10 k International Ski Federation (FIS) race by 36.1 seconds over Sweden’s Jimmie Johnsson, of the AXA Sports Club. Northug did so without any trouble as none of the men in the 180-plus field came close to him throughout the individual start. By 3 k, he was nearly 6 seconds up on the next-fastest man, Johnsson. Throughout the race, he continued to widen the gap to competitors like Simon Andersson of Sweden and Chris Andre Jespersen, Northug’s teammate on the Norwegian World Cup team.

    If it wasn’t enough of a jab that he wore a race suit that distinctly displayed Sweden’s colors and flag, Northug told Norwegian press the win meant nothing to him. If he’d raced similarly in Beitostølen, Norway, last week (which had a slightly longer 15 k classic), he wouldn’t have finished in the top 10, he told NRK. He won Friday’s 10 k in 23:43.3.

    Martin Johnsrud Sundby (148) leads fellow Norwegian national-team member Petter Northug during the 15 k freestyle FIS race in Beitostølen, Norway. Sundby went on to win by 47 seconds and Northug was a minute back in fourth. (Photo: Eirik Lund Røer/SKIsport)
    Petter Northug (r) chases Norwegian teammate Martin Johnsrud Sundby during last weekend’s 15 k freestyle FIS race in Beitostølen, Norway. Sundby went on to win by 47 seconds and Northug was a minute back in fourth. (Photo: Eirik Lund Røer/SKIsport)

    But he didn’t race the Beitostølen 15 k classic, and this marked his first win in two race weekends this season (he was second to Norwegian teammate Eirik Brandsdal in the Beitostølen classic sprint last weekend). There, he raced in a red-and-white suit with the name of his main sponsor, Coop, on his leg.

    In Bruksvallarna, he wore another suit with the Coop logo — one custom-made by Bjørn Dæhlie — with Sweden’s white, blue and yellow.

    “Some look at this with hatred, but I don’t judge anyone,” Northug told NRK, according to a translation. “People are allowed to think what they want.”

    Despite feeling lack he lacked “a little punch” early in the race, Northug closed hard in the final the kilometers on Friday. At the finish, where he knocked Johnsson — the sixth starter — out of the leader’s spot (Northug started 158th), Northug made a point not to celebrate.

    “It’s just training here; it means nothing that I won the race,” he told VG.

    “It would be as if I was celebrating beating my brother in a running race, and he was three and I was 14,” he said, according to a rough translation.

    The fact of the matter is Johnsson, 30, is actually older than Northug, and so is 31-year-old Martin Johansson of IFK Mora, who placed third 38.1 seconds back and 2 seconds out of second.

    Two-tenths of a second from the podium was Norway’s 22-year-old Mikael Gunnulfsen (Oern IF) in fourth, and Jespersen, 32, placed fifth (+ 38.6). In second at one point, Andersson ended up sixth (+39.9).

    In all-too-personal news, Northug’s coach, Stig Rune Kveen, told Aftonbladet that Northug is actually half-Swedish. His parents, John and May, apparently conceived him at the Bruksvallarna mountain race in April 1985. Therefore, thereto…

    Swedish sprinter Emil Jönsson, who placed 15th (+1:03.4), was all for Northug becoming a full-blown Swedish citizen.

    “He is most welcome. We can offer food and shelter,” he told Expressen. “We may need him.”

    Racing continues in Bruksvallarna with the 10/15 k freestyle on Saturday and freestyle sprints on Sunday.

    Results

  • Drama in Bruksvallarna: Olsson Capitalizes on Announcer Error; Jönsson and Haag Swap Chips

    Drama in Bruksvallarna: Olsson Capitalizes on Announcer Error; Jönsson and Haag Swap Chips

    Sweden's Johan Olsson three years ago at the 2011 World Cup opener in Sjusjøen, Norway. (Photo: Inge Scheve)
    Sweden’s Johan Olsson three years ago at the 2011 World Cup opener in Sjusjøen, Norway. (Photo: Inge Scheve)

    The first race of the season is a good one to get the kinks out. You don’t have to tell that to a few top contenders in Friday’s International Ski Federation (FIS) races in Bruksvallarna, Sweden.

    Not only did Johan Olsson snatch the victory by less than half a second in a season-opening 10-kilometer classic race, but husband-wife duo Emil Jönsson and Anna Haag swapped timing chips and caused a lot of commotion in the timing shack.

    Calle Halfvarsson dominated the men’s 10-kilometer classic race, but lost out on first by four-tenths of a second. The stadium announcer, Kjell-Erik Eriksson, took the blame.

    “As a speaker, I generally have a good handle on everybody’s times,” Eriksson wrote on his website, Sweski.com.

    Swede's Calle Halfvarsson (front) edges Italy's Federico Pellegrino for the win in the individual skate sprint at the 2013/2014 Tour de Ski in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: Felgenhauer/NordicFocus)
    Swede’s Calle Halfvarsson (front) edges Italy’s Federico Pellegrino for the win in the individual skate sprint at the 2013/2014 Tour de Ski in Oberhof, Germany. In a 2014/2015 opening FIS Race on Friday in Bruksvallarna, Halfvarsson missed out on first by 0.4 seconds. (Photo: Felgenhauer/NordicFocus)

    “I was sure Calle was going to win when he came into the stadium. At the last turn, he was clearly in the lead. Johan Olsson was 11 seconds behind, and at one point he was 18 seconds behind. That’s why I called out Calle as the winner as early as the start of the final straight stretch,” he explained.

    “Calle wanted to give the spectators a little extra, he slowed down and just rolled across the finish, but that cost him the victory. Johan Olsson raced the last straight stretch as if it was an individual sprint race, and he won by less than half a second. … I take the blame for that, if it helps people sleep better tonight.”

    Halfvarsson, 25, assumed full responsibility, telling Aftonbladet that it was “ridiculous” of himself. “It’s my fault,” he said, according to a translation.

    “I was leading by 20 seconds and thought I could [lollygag] towards the finish. I thought I’d be cool and it was a bit cocky to slide into the finish,” he said.

    Olsson, 34, said he felt a little sorry for Halfvarsson.

    “I was in the stadium when I heard that Kjell-Erik said Calle stopped [skiing],” he told SportExpressen. “So I realized that I could pick on him with a hefty spurt.”

    He added that he was a bit surprised with his result.

    “It feels really nice,” he said, according to a translation. “You can ask my teammates — they know I have not been in shape. It’s almost as if I was starting to wonder if I did something wrong. But when the bib number goes on … it felt a lot better.”

    Friday’s winner in Beitostølen, Martin Johnsrud Sundby had this to say in response to Olsson’s supposed poor form: “Has Johan Olsson ever claimed to be feel fit and prepared ahead of a race? WTF,” Sundby he told SportExpressen. “The day he does, the rest of us might as well not even bother to start.”

    Sweden swept the top 18 with Lars Nelsson finishing third, 22.5 seconds behind Olsson and 22.1 behind Halfvarsson. Daniel Richardsson was another 5.6 seconds back in fourth and Jesper Modin took fifth, 7.9 seconds later.

    “Has Johan Olsson ever claimed to be feel fit and prepared ahead of a race? WTF. The day he does, the rest of us might as well not even bother to start.” — Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby, reacting to Olsson’s statement after his Bruksvallarna win, after Sundby won Friday’s FIS opener in Beitostølen, Norway

    ***

    Emil Jonsson and Anna Haag trying the Americans' strength plan in the summer of 2011. (Photo: Kikkan Randall/Liz Stephen)
    Emil Jonsson and Anna Haag trying the Americans’ strength plan in the summer of 2011. (Photo: Kikkan Randall/Liz Stephen)

    Apparently Jönsson and Haag are so connected that they even share timing chips, causing a major mixup for the timing crew.

    Jönsson had marked the chips with each their names, but he inadvertently switched the chips so that they had the wrong name. Haag discovered the mistake after finishing and was mostly just happy not to get DQed. However, she got no splits skiing with Jönsson chip, Eriksson noted. Jönsson was not listed as starting or finishing — but the results did not indicate a disqualification, either.

    Haag ended up third in the women’s 5 k classic, 50.4 seconds behind Swedish national teammate Charlotte Kalla — the winner in 16:04.4 — and 13.4 seconds back from 20-year-old runner-up Sophia Henriksson.

    Kalla, who strained a back muscle a few weeks ago, said she wasn’t sure how she’d fare heading into Friday’s race.

    She was pleased with her result.

    “It feels great to start off the season in this way,” Kalla told Aftonbladet.

    Sofia Henriksson sheds tears at the finish of last year's Tjejvasan, an annual all-female event in Sweden, which she won. (Photo: Hälsningar Adam)
    Sofia Henriksson sheds tears at the finish of last year’s Tjejvasan, an annual all-female event in Sweden, after skiing in the lead pack but missing a top finish because of a pileup. (Photo: Adam Alexander Johansson)

    “Today I felt like I got the answer I hoped for,” she added, according to a rough translation. “I thought it went well in skiing. I had good skis and took hold. I knew that there were some parts where you can earn on kick-double poling so I tried to find the pressure there too. It’s one of my strengths.”

    A first-year senior with Piteå Elit, Henriksson found herself surprised with her performance.

    “I knew that I can go well in a classic race, but not quite this good,” she told Skidzonen.

    “I didn’t have much courage, but I bet it all and it went really well,” she added. “It is important to get the confidence directly and of course fun with this kind of start.”

    A 17-year-old junior, Sweden’s Ebba Andersson also surprised in 10th.

    Sweden filled the top five with Emma Wiken in fourth, 51.1 behind Kalla, and Sara Lindborg in fifth (+53.4). Switzerland’s Seraina Boner was sixth.

    ***