Norwegian women capture top three places in 30K Freestyle

World Cup: Holmenkollen

Sat, Mar  13, 2010 - By FIS

At the traditional Holmenkollen 30km free technique race, the ladies from Norway celebrated a great success by winning all three podium positions. Marit Bjoergen won the challenging race in a time of 1:24:10, just 1.2 seconds ahead of Kirstin Steira. In third position, Therese Johaug finished just 8.0 seconds behind.

The Norwegian dream team worked together during the race and were able to split the group at about 15km. Behind was a big fight for the other places but nobody was able to catch up the leading group.

Bjoergen won today her 5th World Cup in this season and it was the second victory here over the 30km at Holmenkollen. The first time was in March 2005. Kirstin Steira could celebrate today her first podium spot in this season while Therese Johaug made her second podium this year. After the race, Marit Bjoergen was honoured with Holmenkollen medal, the highest award which you can get as a skier in Norway.

Justyna Kowalczyk from Poland, who was not competing today have now officially also won the overall World Cup with so far 1736 points, Petra Majdic (SLO) is still second (1191 points) and Aino Kaisa Saarinen (FIN, 999pts) is third.

Justyna Kowalcyzk is also leading the distance World Cup with 857 points. Second is Bjoergen (540 points) and new on third position is thanks to her second place today Kristin Stoermer Steira (NOR, 517pts).

Marit Bjoergen (NOR)
I am very happy about my victory today. It was a tough race. I am honoured I was awarded the Holmekollen prize which means a lot to me. We created a gap around 15.0 km. I knew I was slightly better sprinter than Kristin and Therese. I was very tired on the top of the climb. Kristin was still holding so I had to push hard very much all the time. After Olympic I wanted to continue in good performance. I was extra motivated to ski on Holmenkollen. I will be on the start of sprint tomorrow.

Kristin Steira (NOR)
It is great to be here on the second place in Holmenkollen. I was trying hard and not to give up. Marit was stronger than me. We had very good skis today. We made a clever choice with our service staff after first round. We had better skis than those who did not change. Glide was just great.

Therese Johaug (NOR)
It was very nice to ski together today. It was very good race from tactical point of view. We really worked as a team together. We were discussing our strategy during the race as well. On the last uphill I was really exhausted but it was so fun to race with these girls

Contributed by Sandra Spitz