These go the opening distance for Norway – Iversen wrecked
ZHANGJIAKOU / OSLO (VG) Sjur Røthe, Pål Golberg, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Hans Christer Holund make the joint start with a ski change for Norway, while Emil Iversen is wrecked.
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The cross-country national team has had a turbulent charge for the Olympics with the corona infection that struck like a bomb in the camp during the altitude stay in Italy.
It did with Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and co. came later to China, and thus has had less time to turn the clock around.
– It is by no means optimal, we would like to be here longer. And we should preferably not have had three days in the lowlands of Norway, but when the situation became as it was, I think we have made the best of it. I look forward to competing, and I do not think that is where the battle goes now, says the Trøndelag man to VG.
The team selection was presented at a press conference on Thursday night Norwegian time.
– The four who are here are considered stronger than Emil at this distance this year. Emil has had a small roller-coaster season so far, and he knows that well himself, says the men’s all-round coach Eirik Myhr Nossum about the wrecking of Iversen.
The joint start with ski change is the first of four individual cross-country exercises for the men during the Olympics in Beijing. It starts at 08:00 Norwegian time on Sunday.
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Sweden has also taken its team to the distance. Calle Halfvarsson, Leo Johansson, Jens Burman and William Poromaa go for the yellow and blue.
Simen Hegstad Krüger is the reigning Olympic champion in the distance. He won ahead of Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Hans Christer Holund on a Norwegian jubilee day in Pyeongchang.
Krüger had his big breakthrough four years ago in South Korea, but this time the Norwegian golden hope is not included.
The lightning runner was one of the unlucky ones infected with corona during the Norwegian altitude stay in Seiser Alm before the championship.
– There is someone at home who would like to be here. We have to think as a team, and maybe go as a team. Everything from both coaches and athletes at home, who could imagine being here and who could have been terribly fast, says Klæbo about the situation.
The 28-year-old is not finally out of the Olympic squad, but has to settle for watching large parts of the games on TV. Krüger can reach the final distance of the Olympics, five miles.
Krüger also took World Cup silver at the joint start with a ski change in Oberstdorf last winter, only beaten by Russian Aleksandr Bolshunov. Holund took the bronze.