Majdic and Jauhojärvi best in long distance in Trondheim (NOR)

Wed, Mar  18, 2009 - By FIS

The World Cup leader Petra Majdic from Slovenia and Sami Jauhojärvi (FIN) claimed victory in the thrilling 30 km respectively 50km mass start races in classical technique with intermediate sprints and ski changes in Trondheim (NOR).

After several sprint victories, Majdic took her first victory in a 30 km race, 11,7 seconds ahead of her toughest challenger in the overall World Cup, Justyna Kowalczyk (POL). Masako Ishida from Japan finished third. This was the best ever result of a Japanese in a long distance race.

It was a really exciting race where for the first time the athletes could win World Cup points during the race at intermediate sprint points. In the ladies' race, the top three ladies could win 15-10-5 World Cup points three times and it was also allowed to change the skies in the stadium. All in all this created a lot of excitement.

Justyna Kowalczyk won all three intermediate sprints and collected 45 points already during the race and in addition she got 80 points for her second place. With that she reduced the World Cup lead of Majdic, who won in total 105 points, to 91 points. Aino Kaisa Saarinen (FIN), who attacked early in the race, is third with a gap to Majdic of 202 points. In the upcoming World Cup are still 400 points in total to win.

For 27-year-old Sami Jauhojärvi it was his first career victory. He finished 21,8 seconds ahead of Tobias Angerer from Germany. Just 20-year-old Alex Harvey from Canada completed the podium. Harvey is the son of the Pierre Harvey, who won 1988 the 50km in Oslo at the Holmenkollen.

The new leader in the overall World Cup is Petter Northug, who took 45 World Cup points in the intermediate sprints during the race and finished in the fifth position. Dario Cologna (SUI) was fighting hard but was not able to follow Northug and finished in the end 15th.