Nordic World Championships - Late Results
Well, it's been quite a couple days at the Nordic World Championships in Oberstdorf, capped on Saturday by what might be the greatest-ever performance at the championships, that of Norwegian ace Marit Bjorgen.
After some surprises earlier in the championships, ski jumping returned to form on Friday as World Cup leader Janne Ahonen won gold on the large hill. The event was delayed due to low visibility, but once it was under way, numerous jumpers launched flights long enough to assume temporary leads. But no one could match Ahonen's pair of jumps, which were two of the day's longest at 141.5 meters and 142.5 meters (just under and just over 155 yards). Norwegian Roar Ljoekelsoey won the silver and Jakub Janda of the Czech Republic took the bronze. Several pre-event favorites jumped too poorly to seriously challenge for a medal, including the Pole Adam Malysz and the normal-hill champion, Rok Benkovic. Ahonen's win was a triumphant return to form after a long bout with the flu.
On the cross-country trails, one athlete's dominance was no less evident: that of Marit Bjorgen. On Friday, Bjorgen and teammate Hilde Pedersen won the women's 6 x 0.9km team sprint, a new event at the World Championships. Each team's two skiers alternate laps around the short sprint course, which makes for lots of exchanges, many changes of the leader, and much racing through the stadium. In the five-team final, Russia's Julia Tchepalova caught Pedersen midway through the penultimate, fifth leg and endowed the Russian anchor, Alena Sidko, with a sizable 3.4 second lead over Bjorgen. But the Norwegian tore off in pursuit, catching Sikdo on the final climb of the last lap and then descending smoothly to sweep into the stadium and over the finish line for the gold medal. In her wake, Sidko faded badly, allowing Finn Pirjo Manninen to sprint past for the silver. The team sprint gold redeemed Bjorgen's abysmal performance in the individual sprint event, where she failed to make it out of the qualifying heats.
But Bjorgen was not finished. On Saturday, she raced in the longest women's event at Oberstdorf, the 30km classic-style race. There, too, she won in dramatic fashion, earning her fifth medal at the championships. The 30km race evolved slowly. At the halfway point, about 14 skiers were within three seconds of the leader. With 5km left to race, most of that group was still in the hunt. With the racers in that small group jockeying for position, it was Bjorgen who seized control, dashing up the day's final climb and leaving all but Virpi Kuitunen of Finland and Natalia Baranova of Russia well back. Bjorgen stretched her lead to nearly 9 seconds over Kuitunen, who earned the silver, and 10 over Baravova, who recovered from an early fall to keep the bronze. Bjorgen's two wins might be related to other athletic feats - perhaps a track-and-field athlete winnning the 400m dash on one day and the marathon the next or a bike racer - Lance Armstrong, for instance - winning a short time trial one day and a long mountain stage the next. Analogies aside, Bjorgen's wins were a nearly impossible physical and mental accomplishment for arare athlete.
The men's team sprint went to Norway as well, albeit in less dramatic fashion. Tore Ruud Hostad and Tor Arne Hetland won going away, with Germany in second and the Czech Republic in third. Norway had beaten the Germans in the 4 x 10km relay earlier in the week. With the men's 50km race the only remaining cross-country event at Oberstdorf, it remains to be seen if one of the male sprinters can duplicate Bjorgen's feat.
After some surprises earlier in the championships, ski jumping returned to form on Friday as World Cup leader Janne Ahonen won gold on the large hill. The event was delayed due to low visibility, but once it was under way, numerous jumpers launched flights long enough to assume temporary leads. But no one could match Ahonen's pair of jumps, which were two of the day's longest at 141.5 meters and 142.5 meters (just under and just over 155 yards). Norwegian Roar Ljoekelsoey won the silver and Jakub Janda of the Czech Republic took the bronze. Several pre-event favorites jumped too poorly to seriously challenge for a medal, including the Pole Adam Malysz and the normal-hill champion, Rok Benkovic. Ahonen's win was a triumphant return to form after a long bout with the flu.
On the cross-country trails, one athlete's dominance was no less evident: that of Marit Bjorgen. On Friday, Bjorgen and teammate Hilde Pedersen won the women's 6 x 0.9km team sprint, a new event at the World Championships. Each team's two skiers alternate laps around the short sprint course, which makes for lots of exchanges, many changes of the leader, and much racing through the stadium. In the five-team final, Russia's Julia Tchepalova caught Pedersen midway through the penultimate, fifth leg and endowed the Russian anchor, Alena Sidko, with a sizable 3.4 second lead over Bjorgen. But the Norwegian tore off in pursuit, catching Sikdo on the final climb of the last lap and then descending smoothly to sweep into the stadium and over the finish line for the gold medal. In her wake, Sidko faded badly, allowing Finn Pirjo Manninen to sprint past for the silver. The team sprint gold redeemed Bjorgen's abysmal performance in the individual sprint event, where she failed to make it out of the qualifying heats.
But Bjorgen was not finished. On Saturday, she raced in the longest women's event at Oberstdorf, the 30km classic-style race. There, too, she won in dramatic fashion, earning her fifth medal at the championships. The 30km race evolved slowly. At the halfway point, about 14 skiers were within three seconds of the leader. With 5km left to race, most of that group was still in the hunt. With the racers in that small group jockeying for position, it was Bjorgen who seized control, dashing up the day's final climb and leaving all but Virpi Kuitunen of Finland and Natalia Baranova of Russia well back. Bjorgen stretched her lead to nearly 9 seconds over Kuitunen, who earned the silver, and 10 over Baravova, who recovered from an early fall to keep the bronze. Bjorgen's two wins might be related to other athletic feats - perhaps a track-and-field athlete winnning the 400m dash on one day and the marathon the next or a bike racer - Lance Armstrong, for instance - winning a short time trial one day and a long mountain stage the next. Analogies aside, Bjorgen's wins were a nearly impossible physical and mental accomplishment for arare athlete.
The men's team sprint went to Norway as well, albeit in less dramatic fashion. Tore Ruud Hostad and Tor Arne Hetland won going away, with Germany in second and the Czech Republic in third. Norway had beaten the Germans in the 4 x 10km relay earlier in the week. With the men's 50km race the only remaining cross-country event at Oberstdorf, it remains to be seen if one of the male sprinters can duplicate Bjorgen's feat.
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