Norway dominates the sprint decision at the World Championships in Planica: Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo runs to gold, his teammate Paal Goldberg wins silver. The German cross-country skier Janosch Brugger misses the semifinals.
Janosch Brugger was the only German who was able to qualify for the World Championship quarterfinals in the classic sprint. However, the 25-year-old had nothing to do with the medal decision. The pace in his group with Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson, Norway’s Even Northug and Italy’s Federico Pellegrino was simply too high.
After a strong start, Brugger had to give up quickly and kept falling back. In the end, he was the last of his quarterfinals to cross the finish line. “I’m a bit speechless because I thought I was fast,” Brugger reported after his run on the ZDF microphone. Against the strongest sprinters there is simply nothing that can be done today.
Even the sprint specialist and currently third in the Sprint World Cup Federico Pellegrino couldn’t keep up with the absolute top runners on Thursday. The Italian was surprisingly eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Norway and France strong
The semifinals were mainly Norwegian and French: four Norwegians and three French were represented. Among them, as expected, the Norwegian high-flyer Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo and the strong sprinter Lucas Chanavat.
Klaebo confidently prevailed in the first semi-final, distanced the second Calle Halfvarsson by almost half a second. Chanavat bought the third final ticket in the same run as the lucky loser. In the second group, the Frenchman Jules Chappaz was able to prevail in front of the Norwegian Paal Goldberg and the lucky loser Michal Novak from the Czech Republic.
Klaebo confidently to gold
The 2021 world champion Klaebo also asserted himself confidently in the 2023 sprint final. He didn’t give his competitors a chance in the valley of the hills and sprinted to his seventh world title. It only got exciting behind him, Goldberg and Chappaz fought for silver in the photo finish. In the end, the Frenchman was a few hundredths slower and finished in bronze.