Gjert Ingebrigtsen, tired of the joint start in cross-country skiing – NRK Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule

– Yes, now I just walk and vase in the forest and almost always do very little. Now you can say and think exactly what you want about it, says Johannes Høsflot Klæbo when confronted by NRK with statements from Gjert Ingebrigtsen.

NRK interviewed the track coach in profile on his way to the European Indoor Athletics Championships earlier this week. In addition to questions about his own sport, he also received some questions about the Ski World Championships.

Like: Are there any parallels between athletics and cross-country skiing? Can Klæbo’s play be carried over to athletics?

And Ingebrigtsen was not too heavy to pray. This is what he had to report:

– I think the International Ski Association should have done something with the exercise setup, to make things a little more action-packed and exciting.

– Do you have any examples?

– For example, they could introduce a system where they choose someone for each round. For example, those who are not in the top 30 after one round can be eliminated, so those who are not in the top 25 after two rounds and so on. So those who are now just queues must do something to join.

– like a bicycle

Ingebrigtsen’s justification is as long as it is direct and interesting.

– The joint outings in cross-country skiing have become a stage of transport, a bit like a bicycle. It’s not as bad as a bike, where you sit for five and a half hours and then step on the last five minutes. But cross-country skiing has taken on a bit of that feel, especially when the width at the top is so slim.

Then he comes to this with the idiot Klæbo, who thinks he has little transfer value.

– No, it will be different. A completely different type of exercise, a completely different type of ownership, and you can see a bit: in individual cross-country skiing there are no jerks, that is, in an individual outing, says Gjert Ingebrigtsen.

He continues:

– It’s only when he has the joint that he starts that there is a jolt to that effect, because then he’s gone and moved there, usually walking and wading in the woods for an hour or two, and then he has a little jolt to the left at the end. And I see those who have the idiot, they are late and they get a really cheap ride, and then they hope it’s so late that they can use their idiot. Sometimes they can, and sometimes they can’t, because then there are some who arrive so fast that they have more than enough to keep up.

– It is not a human right

Here you get to the main point.

– That’s our thing: if you run fast enough on the trail, then sprinters can be as fast as they want, because it doesn’t help to ask when others are at the finish line. And none of my guys are fast, so there wouldn’t have been any jerks in that regard, but it’s all about running fast on the road.

Gjert Ingebrigtsen emphasizes that he has great respect for both cross-country sports and the best athletes.

– I have great respect for both Klæbo and Iversen and all the best. But it is not a human right to be the best in both sprints and five miles. There are two completely different exercises, and it is really unnatural to fight for gold on both sides. It’s stupid by the nature of cross-country skiing that one can’t make a distinction between sprinters and endurance athletes, he notes.

After Friday’s relay gold, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Emil Iversen and Pål Golberg were able to see parts of the interview. Klæbo and Iversen did a joint 30km outing with a ski change last weekend, and the three of them ride Sunday’s 50km joint outing in classic.

Emil Iversen has the following answers:

– You can try dille and dalle baki there and see how easy it is. But if you ask me, it has changed a bit and sadly it has become quite difficult to do joint outings.

Iversen acknowledges that Ingebrigtsen may have had a point 10-15 years ago, when Petter Northug swept joint starts.

– Can’t hold to have a little pull

– I do not know if Gjert Ingebrigtsen saw three thousand, but it is not the case that there are a couple of hundred who are involved and is comforting behind there. It goes pretty hard. It has changed a bit in the last few years with the joint starts, which goes quite difficult for a long period of time. It is no longer enough to have a little idiot. There he is a bit wrong, says Iversen.

– Gjert Ingebrigtsen has something very good about athletics. But they probably stopped cross-country skiing after the continental run, says Pål Golberg, who expects a brutal five miles.

– We are going to climb eight times to the highest point of the trail here, and it will be hard for everyone, that.

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, however, gives Ingebrigtsen, at least in part, the reason. It is not intended to help increase speed by five miles.

– It’s up and down most of the time. You can say what you want about yourself by simply staying behind and having something left until the end, but you also have to hold on. It will be tough on Sunday, no doubt about that, says Klæbo.

For Emil Iversen, five miles is the last chance in the World Cup to meet the goal of an individual medal.

– I think the opportunity is great. It was big in the sprint, big in three miles, and maybe even a little bigger in five miles. Everything has to work and it hasn’t so far. We’ll see if I have more chest hair later.