Norwegian domination in Drammen's sprint tc, Klaebo and Falla win

Two Norwegian double win Klaebo-Brandsdal and Falla-Jacobsen in Drammen's sprint tc. Bitter day for Italian athletes who do not pass the quarter-finals.

Tuesday 12 March 2019 5 minutes reading time

Today, Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo started with a single goal to recapture the general's leader's bib, and he did so. The Norwegian took full advantage of the Bolshunov day that ended in thirteenth place and ended up in the quarterfinals. An impeccable season on the part of the Klaebo phenomenon that with today's sprint leads to 7 victories for Norway followed by Italy with the two Pellegrino victories and a victory for Russia with Bolshunov. To complete today's double win for Norway, Eirik Brandsdal finished second, unable to do anything against the overwhelming power of his compatriot. To prevent the Viking triplet the Frenchman Richard Jouve has positioned himself with an excellent third place. The final in Drammen's city route had only one protagonist Klaebo, who with a solo left from the first meters defeated the competition leading from the beginning to the end and conquering the victory easily. For the completion of the podium there were few changes as Brandsdal and Jouve only thought not to lose too much ground from the winner. The general classification now sees Klaebo lead with 1281 points, followed by Bolshunov with 1250 points and in third position Roethe at 802 points. Battle for the cup of the general still very open and postponed to the Swedish weekend of Falun on 16 and 17 March. Drammen remains a locality difficult for the Italian athletes who are unable to overcome the quarters by finishing in 16th place with Federico Pellegrino and in 26th place with Maicol Rastelli. The bitter tradition of the Italians in this race continues, as in nine editions the best result remains the tenth place of Pellegrino conquered last year. In the women's field there was another Norwegian double, where Maiken Caspersen Falla was the winner, followed by Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen. In front of the home crowd, the two countrymen warmed the audience under a heavy snowfall that suddenly started making the path more insidious. In third place was Natalia Nepryaeva, who won important points for the general, to keep the games open for the Falun races. The women's final was very tight, with Falla leading a good part of the race closely followed by the Swedish Nilsson who finished fourth. The podium was decided on the final straight with the four tracks occupied by the four athletes who saw Falla take first and maintain the leadership while Nilsson succumbed to external comebacks of Jacobsen and Nepryaeva. Maintains the first position in the overall standings Oestberg at 1329 closely followed by Nepryaeva at 1327 and third Parmakoski at 1068 points. The Italians did not pass the quarterfinals with Lucia Scardoni, who placed 16th behind Greta Laurent closed in 27th position.