“I had been looking forward to this race a lot,” Amundsen says after his victory on Sunday, and continues.
“I felt in control and was able to push all the way, I could charge through the curves and over the crests. That's the feeling that makes it so fun to race.”
All said and done, Amundsen wins by more than 11 seconds. In less than four weeks, the 2025 FIS Nordic World Championships begin in Trondheim (NOR).
Also, at the FIS World Cup in Cogne, Jules Chappaz helps France to second place in the team sprint on Friday. Elena Rise Johnsen helps Norway to fourth place in the women’s team sprint, missing the podium by half a second, after being thrown into the race only a couple of hours earlier.
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Photo by: Nordic Focus
At the 2025 IBU European championships in biathlon in Martello-Val Martello (ITA), Madshus comeback sensation Sivert Bakken (NOR) hauls into first place in the 10-kilometer sprint competition on Friday and secures the gold medal.
Saturday, the 26-year-old follows up with fourth place in the pursuit, and caps off the weekend with another gold medal after helping Norway to first place in the relay. All of this at a championship that he didn’t even dream about competing at.
When Bakken stepped up to the starting line at the season opener in November, he hadn’t raced in more than two and a half years, and he had not trained at all for more than two years due to an infection of the heart. Two months after returning to the sport, Bakken earns a gold medal at an international championship.
Photo by: Nordic Focus