The amazing story of Therese Johaug added another chapter on Sunday as she won her 11th straight distance race at the World Cup or World Championships with a victory in front of a happy home crowd in the 30 km Mass Start race in Oslo.
She simply could not be beaten and has now won all eight of her World Cup distance starts to go along with three World Championships distance gold medals.
Because she is a distance-only star – she finished 33rd in her one Sprint race of the season, back in November – she sits fourth in the seasonal standings behind teammate Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg (NOR: 1,317), new Russian star Natalia Nepryaeva (1,267) and Finland’s Krista Parmakoski (1,057).
There are six races left in the season, with three sprints and three distance races, so Oestberg is in a good position to win her first overall title.
In the men’s famed 50 km race at the Holmenkollen Ski Fest in Oslo, Alexander Bolshunov not only led a 1-2-3-4 sweep, but took the season lead in the Cross Country World Cup. He now has 1,230 points to 1,181 for Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, also with six races left.
With Nepryaeva at 23 and Bolshunov just 22, Russia could be contending for honors for the next decade, if they can stay free from injury.
In the Nordic Combined, Norway’s seasonal World Cup champion Jarl Magnus Riiber came from ninth after the jumping to win his 11th event of the 19 held this season. Although his 10 km time was only fifth-fastest in the field, he was able to outlast Finland’s Ilkka Herola by 0.2 seconds at the finish line.
In Ski Jumping, the man with the best moustache in sports – Norway’s Robert Johansson – won his first event of the season, ahead of Austrian star Stefan Kraft. Japan’s World Cup leader Ryoyu Kobayashi essentially clinched the seasonal title with a fifth-place finish. He now has a 500-point lead with five events left. A single point in any of them will give the 22-year-old the Crystal Globe.
In the women’s jumping, 35-year-old Daniela Iraschko-Stolz won her their event of the season, but Maren Lundby (NOR) maintained a solid 1,413-1,330 lead over Katharina Althaus (GER) in the cumulative standings. Summaries from the Holmenkollen Ski Fest:
FIS Cross Country World Cup
Oslo (NOR) ~ 9-10 March 2019
(Full results here)
Men’s 50 km Mass Start Classical: 1. Alexander Bolshunov (RUS), 2:23:49.8; 2. Maxim Vylegzhanin (RUS), 2:23:50.8; 3. Andrey Larkin (RUS), 2:23:51.4; 4. Ilia Semkov (RUS), 2:23:51.8; 5. Alex Harvey (CAN), 2:23:54.4. Also in the top 25: 19. Scott Patterson (USA), 2:24:56.2; … 24. David Norris (USA), 2:25:56.4.
Women’s 30 km Mass Start Classical: 1. Therese Johaug (NOR), 1:18:54.5; 2. Natalie Nepryaeva (RUS), 1:20:40.4; 3. Ebba Andersson (NOR), 1:20:44.4; 4.Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg (NOR), 1:20:44.6; 5. Charlotte Kalla (SWE), 1:21:12.4.
FIS Nordic Combined World Cup
Oslo (NOR) ~ 9 March 2019
(Full results here)
Gundersen 134 m hill/10.0 km: 1. Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR), 26:13.8; 2. Ilkka Herola (FIN), 26:14.0; 3. Espen Bjoernstad (NOR), 26:21.6; 4. Manuel Faisst (AUT), 26:26.1; 5. Akito Watabe (JPN), 26:31.8.
FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
Oslo (NOR) ~ 9-10 March 2019
(Full results here)
Men’s 134 m hill: 1. Robert Johansson (NOR), 262.0; 2. Stefan Kraft (AUT), 258.3; 3. Peter Prevc (SLO), 252.8; 4. Philip Aschenwald (AUT), 250.2; 5. Ryoyu Kobayashi (JPN), 250.1.
Men’s Team 134 m hill: 1. Norway (Forfang, Pedersen, Lindvik, Johansson), 469.8; 2. Japan, 456.8; 3. Austria, 454.4; 4. Poland, 440.9; 5. Germany, 437.9.
Women’s 134 m hill: 1. Daniela Iraschko-Stolz (AUT), 209.0; 2. Juliane Seyfarth (GER), 194.3; 3. Katharina Althaus (GER), 193.3; 4. Sara Takanashi (JPN), 192.1; 5. Maren Lundby (NOR), 186.5.
