Today was the Sprint combined (one jump and 7,5k skiing) women’s 30k and k95 jump.
I guess there dancing in the streets in the US today because Johnny Spillane won with Ronny Ackermann from Germany on second and Felix Gottwald from Austria on third.
The 30k was won by Olga Savialova with Elena Burukina on second both from Russia, Kristina Smigun from Esonia was number 3.
The K95 was won by Adam Malysz from Poland with Tommy Ingebrigtsen from Norway on second and Noriaki Karsai from Japan on third.
Civilization! Running water! An Internet connection! I am a happy flodnak. The promised TV was mysteriously missing, though we sort of forgot about that when the substitute toilet broke, and I will spare you further details. But I missed out on the big surprise of the competition, dammit!
The men’s 50K freestyle was something of a letdown for Norskies. Thomas Alsgaard apparently overdid things in the relay, so soon after being sick, and went home to rest, muttering about retiring :eek: The four remaining Norwegians took 24th, 29th, 30th and 34th. Ah, but the Swedes must be smiling! Had it not been for Martin Koukal (who?), who grabbed the gold for the Czech Republic (say WHAT?, it would have been a Swedish Sweep: Anders Södergren took silver, Jörgen Brink bronze (is he forgiven now?), and just behind in fourth was Mathias Fredriksson, leaving him with no individual medals when Bjørn Dæhlie had predicted he’d win the whole banana. It’s a curse, I tell you!
Thanks for taking over for me, Bark!
And with that, the Worlds are over for two more years. Tell me, is it just coincidence that the Norwegian schools’ winter break usually overlaps with either the Nordic Worlds or the Winter Olympics? I’m just asking…
