Sunday, November 28th, 2021
Surprising cross-country success
With “rockets under your feet” to the Olympics
The German cross-country team has had a successful weekend. Also because in Ruka, Finland, the men from Finland and Norway surrender to the cold. In the women’s category, the top of the world starts and with “rockets under her feet”, a German runner in particular presents herself as strong.
The unexpected success of Katharina Hennig comes at the right time for the German cross-country team. At the start of the Olympic winter, the 25-year-old from Oberwiesenthal not only met the standards for Beijing, but also secured a podium place despite strong competition as third. “I’m super happy. The skis were just great, I had real rockets under my feet. But I wouldn’t have expected that in life,” said Hennig on ZDF.
After crossing the finish line on Saturday, she sank to the ground, exhausted, and the otherwise dominant Therese Johaug from Norway was only 1.5 seconds short. Frida Karlsson from Sweden won. “Nobody in the team expected that,” said national coach Peter Schlickenrieder, who pointed out that Ruka in Finland has not achieved too much in the recent past. On the way to the Olympics, the cross-country skiers, plagued by many failures, now want to gain momentum.
A “nice team success”
In the ten kilometer freestyle pursuit race on Sunday, Hennig finished seventh in Johaug’s victory. Victoria Carl (10th) also achieved the Olympic standard with her second top 15 placement.
“We have worked a lot and fought a lot. We will continue to work on our success and take the next step. Now it is important to celebrate this intermediate step and enjoy the fact that this much work is worth it,” said Schlickenrieder, who was on Saturday a “nice team success” had spoken. But one does not want to be “reckless” or “cocky”.
There was also positive news from a German perspective among men. Lucas Bögl in seventh and Jonas Dobler in 14th achieved the Olympic norm. The Germans benefited from the victory of the Russian Alexander Bolschunow in the pursuit race over 15 kilometers, however, from the fact that the strong Norwegians did not compete because of the cold.