Friedrich Moch fought like a lion, head coach Peter Schlickenrieder roared his top man on the edge of the route – but when the mail went off, Germany’s best cross -country skier was no longer able to keep up in the concert of the very big ones.
At the next gold coup of Norway’s superstar Johannes Hösflot Kläbo, the Allgäuer came to a good tenth in the Skiathlon of the World Cup from Trondheim. It wasn’t enough for the absolute top of the world.
“It was brutal hard, I fought to the end. It was a struggle for survival. In the target sprint it was a bit tough,” said the 24 -year -old liked.
Schlickenrieder said after a gripping race over 10 km in the classic and free style: “I am very satisfied. Top 10 was the goal, he narrowly did it. The ‘Fri’ was there until the end, it was a good performance.”
In front of tens of thousands of spectators in the witch cauldron of the sold-out granases ski stadium and in the woods along the route, Kläbo won his eleventh world title two days after his triumph in the sprint-the first in a single distance race.
“Kläbo is an artist on snow”
In Trondheim, the 28-year-old could catch up with compatriot and record world champion Petter Northug, who won 14 times gold. Kläbo still has four title opportunities at the current World Cup.
All-rounder Kläbo, who led a Norge four-subject victory like in 2023, ran mercilessly and then mercilessly struck in the sprint. At the finish line, he was 1.4 seconds ahead of Martin Löwström Nyenget and Harald Amundsen Östberg.
“Kläbo is an artist on snow. The competition also made it easy for him,” said Schlickenrieder. Defending champion Simen Hegstad Krüger (12th) was the only one of the five Norwegians outside the Top 4.
Moch was 3.8 seconds behind, including Florian Notz (27th) and Elias Keck (30th), Axel Teichmann and Tobias Angerer had celebrated a German double victory in the skiathlon at the World Cup in Sapporo, the only medals of the DSV in this discipline.
For the first time since 2003, the skiathlon was held over 20 instead of over 30 km. This results from the alignment of the competition program of men and women. The women who start in the skiathlon on Sunday (2:00 p.m.) have been running 15 km so far.