By Máximo Steverlynck
The World Cup returned to Europe this week, following last month’s stint across the pond. Opening the Lahti stop of the World Cup today was a team classic sprint competition, a format that we don’t see very often, with two-person teams competing following a qualification round.
However, although the format isn’t seen much, the results were a full return to form for the World Cup. Sweden’s first team, composed of Jonna Sundling and Linn Svahn, took the women’s competition, and Norway’s first men’s team, of Pål Goldberg and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, took the men’s competition.
In the women’s race, the win was at no point in much doubt, with Sundling and Svahn taking turns opening a historic gap of nearly 25 seconds for the win. Following Sweden’s first team was Finland’s first team, with Krista Pärmäkoski and Johanna Matintalo bringing home a podium performance on home soil, 24.75 seconds behind the Swedes. Rounding out the women’s podium, just behind the Finns with a deficit of 25.41 seconds to the win, was Germany’s first team, made up of Katharina Hennig and Laura Gimmler.
Of note in the women’s race was Maja Dahlqvist suffering a crash just above Lahti Corner that resulted in her ski disintegrating almost completely, putting Sweden II out of contention for the win. Here is first video and then photos of the moment:
“There were various profanities that flew out of me” at the time of the equipment malfunction Dahlqvist told Swedish outlet Expressen, according to an auto-translation. Dahlqvist also noted that the rupture took out one of her best pairs of klister skis (or at least half of one pair).
The Norwegian men’s first team took the win with an advantage of just over four seconds to the Norwegian second team. Norway’s winning team, as noted, was made up of Pål Golberg and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, and their runner-up team was composed of Håvard Solås Taugbøl and Even Northug. Following the Norwegians with a 6.9-second deficit was Finland’s first team, with Iivo Niskanen and Lauri Vuorinen bringing home a second podium for the home crowd.
No points for the World Cup overall standings were scored today due to the relay format, which resulted in Jessie Diggins sitting this race out to conserve energy for the points-scoring races tomorrow and Sunday. Sammy Smith and Julia Kern held down the fort for the American women, finishing 15th out of the 15 teams that made the finals.
For the men, Luke Jager and Zanden McMullen raced for USA I, and Logan Diekmann and Michael Earnhart for USA II. They finished 20th and 22nd, respectively, in the qualification round. Only the top 15 teams, out of 29 starters Friday, advanced to the final; the American men’s day ended there.
(The current format of World Cup team sprinting involves each athlete running a qual individually, the same as in a “normal” sprint. Times are then combined, for the two athletes on a team, to see which teams advance. This has replaced the semifinal system previously used, in which there was scant drama through the semifinal and top teams expended scant energy before advancing to the final.)
Some historical perspective on Sweden’s win today
The Swedes’ final margin of victory on Friday, 24.75 seconds, was the second-largest winning margin for a women’s team sprint in World Cup history, according to one ski historian.
The only larger gap at the finish was 30.5 seconds, occurring when Maiken Caspersen Falla and Marit Bjørgen won a classic team sprint in Liberec in January 2011. Notably, one Kerttu Niskanen, then age 22, was on the Finland I team that finished fourth in that race thirteen years ago. Niskanen did not race today, but will be wearing bib no. 17 in tomorrow’s 20km classic.
“Linn Svahn set out at the finish with a lead of a whopping 24 seconds and could have stopped for coffee, changed skis and had a nap if she had wanted to on the final stretch” was Expressen’s take on today’s women’s final, according to an auto-translation. “That’s how superior the Swedish first team was.”
Racing continues in Lahti tomorrow with a 20km interval-start classic competition, starting at 09:00 CET for the women’s race and 12:00 CET for the men’s race. Sophia Laukli, Rosie Brennan, and Jessie Diggins will race for the American women, and Earnhart, Jager, McMullen, Scott Patterson, Gus Schumacher, Zak Ketterson, and Peter Wolter for the American men.
Results: men’s qual | men’s final | women’s final
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