Madshus racers cleaned up at the Norwegian national championships this weekend.
Magnus Moan hauled home two gold medals and KONGEPOKAL (“The King’s Cup”-awarded at only one national championships event in each sport each year) at the Nordic Combined National Championships. This was Moan’s 6th Kongepokal in his career.
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At the Norwegian national championships in biathlon, Marte Olsbu opened the championships with bronze medal the women’s 15km normal competition on Wednesday, behind fellow Madshus biathlete Sigrid Bilstad Neraasen who won the silver medal. Then Olsbu proceeded to collected a gold medal and KONGEPOKAL in the sprint on Friday, and won the pursuit on Saturday.
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Emil Hegle “Super-Svendsen” anchored his regional team Sør-Trøndelag SSK to GOLD at the Norwegian national biathlon championships on Sunday – his first relay gold at the national championships. Svendsen arrived at the championships in Sirdal a couple of days late due to snow problems causing cancellations at the Oslo airport. Also, Madshus racer Eirik Bratli won the gold in the men’s normal competition on Wednesday.
Complete results all events in Sirdal
At the Norwegian cross-country national championships this weekend, Heidi Weng capped her season with three medals – two gold and one silver.
On Thursday, she helped her club to gold in the sprint relay at the Norwegian National Championships. On Friday, she picked up a silver medal in the 5km classic at nationals, and on Saturday, she won the 30k classic by almost 5 minutes.
“It was a good day for me. I felt like I could just keep going,” Weng said to Norwegian TV reporters after her race, adding that she felt like she skied the interval-start event strategically well.
“I felt really strong today, especially for the first 15 kilometers. On the second lap, I was really tired, but I didn’t get super stiff,” Weng said.
Weng finished the 30 kilometers in 1 hour 29 minutes and 54.9 seconds. The next competitor finished in 1:34:43.6.
The 23-year-old has had yet another major international breakthrough season, establishing herself firmly on the podium both in regular World Cup distance events as well as in the Tour de Ski and the World Cup mini-tours. Weng also beat the queen of cross-country skiing, Marit Bjoergen, both in sprint and distance events this season, which marks another first for the talented Norwegian.
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Following the 30km classic event on Saturday, Weng was named the queen of the Norwegian national championships – an award given to the racer with the lowest combined rank after completing all five individual events for 2015 (3 events at Roeros in January and 2 events in Harstad in March). Weng had a combined score of 11 after 2 times 1st place, 2 times 2nd place, and one 4th place. The next racer had a combined score of 31.
Also at the national championships this weekend, Didrik Toenseth helped himself to two silver medals.
First, Toenseth was second at the men’s 10km individual start classic on Friday, and then he earned another silver medal at the 50km classic on Saturday. Fellow Madshus racer Hans Christer Holund was third in the 50km.
Complete results all events at the 2015 National Championships Harstad