Title: 1) Beatrici Lorenza (Atl
Author: tpo
Last saved by: Elena
Company: Newspower

Press release 27 February 2013 

ONCE AGAIN THE PODIUM BELONGS TO SCANDINAVIA
THE WORLD OF SKIING BOWS TO KING NORTHUG

Petter Northug Jr.: gold medal at all costs
Homage to princess Victoria: Olsson wins the silver medal 
Gjerdalen runs as a reserve for Sundby and wins the bronze

Tears of exhaustion and relief on Petter Northug’s face are today’s moving image of the efforts of the new 15K World Champion. This is a snapshot moment that only sport can capture and leave an impression on even the “hardest” of hearts. This also applied to Northug, a person who hardly ever shows his emotions.
The image of the Viking with ruffled hair and unkempt beard hypnotized those inside the XC Stadium, where it seems that a bit of Norway has emigrated to Val di Fiemme. The red devil wearing no. 89 started strongly and was a stand out from the 1.8 km mark. This was indicative of the final result. Northug recorded the best time at both 9.4 km and 11.8 km intermediate times. Despite his comments yesterday, it was not a medal he was expecting to win, but he was in the race for gold from the start of this event. Winning the silver medal was Swede Johan Olsson, very lucky with the special support of Princess Victoria of Sweden, with flag in hand and wearing a Team Sweden jacket. He raced “smart” closely following Dario Cologna of Switzerland to the 5 km intermediate and powering away in the second half of the race. Cologna’s performance was the surprise of the day. Despite being the new skiathlon World Champion, he wasn’t in the medals and only managed to achieve 8^th place. He moved forward (recording the 3rd best time at 9.4 km) but then lost second after second in the next kilometers. 
The bronze medal is a completely different story: Tord Asle Gjerdalen was not even in the starting list, yesterday, as he was the reserve for the Norwegian team. But everybody knows that anything can happen and you have to use the opportunity.
In fact, due to a sore throat, Norwegian Martin Johnsrud Sundby (bronze medalist in this event in Oslo 2011 and winner of the silver medal in the Skiathlon last Saturday) was replaced by Gjerdalen.
Here is the opportunity: a cautious start put him in 20^th position at the first intermediate time, but he moved up to 4^th by 9.4 km mark, improving to 3^rd position at 11.8 km mark. This exciting race ended with the cheering Norwegian fans driving him on in the final straight. Norway, Sweden and Norway with a big gap of 53”6 back to the Canadian, Ivan Babikov. Cologna  arrived 1'21”1 after Northug and the previous World Champion Matti Heikkinen (FIN) was only able to reach 12^th place.
Info: www.fiemme2013.com 

Men 15 KM Free 
1 NORTHUG Petter jr. NOR 34:37.1; 2 OLSSON Johan SWE 34:48.9; 3 GJERDALEN Tord Asle NOR 34:59.4; 4 BABIKOV Ivan CAN 35:30.7; 5 ROETHE Sjur NOR 35:40.1; 6 HALFVARSSON Calle SWE 35:46.6; 7 REHEMAA Aivar EST 35:49.5; 8 COLOGNA Dario SUI 35:58.2; 9 TEICHMANN Axel GER 36:02.8; 10 RICHARDSSON Daniel SWE 36:03.9