(Reuters) – Norway’s Hans Christer Holund produced a dominant display to win the gold medal in the men’s 15km freestyle event at the FIS Ski World Championships in Oberstdorf on Wednesday.
Holund finished in 33 minutes 48.7 seconds to cross the line 20.2 seconds ahead of fellow Norwegian Simen Hegstad Krueger while compatriot Harald Amundsen took the bronze medal in an event where the athletes start at 30-second intervals.
“It was big. That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve ever done. I had a good day and managed to carry out what was planned,” an emotional Holund told broadcaster NRK.
“I took it very nicely the first round and went with good control. When I went (on) the last lap, I went on emotion. Then you get extra energy.”
Favourite Alexander Bolshunov of Russia finished fourth.
Norway’s Maren Lundby claimed the gold medal in the first women’s large hill ski jumping event in the history of the world championships, beating Japan’s Sara Takanashi by a margin of
8.7 points. Nika Kriznar of Slovenia took the bronze.
“Just becoming world champion in itself is something I had not imagined a couple of weeks ago, and in addition it’s on this day here that we have fought so hard for. The combination there is difficult to absorb,” Lundby said.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru,; Editing by David Goodman and Ed Osmond)
