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THE NEW AND OLD KINGS: Petter Northug (left) stopped at 38 World Cup victories, while Johannes Høsflot Klæbo achieved his 39 on Sunday. Here are the two in the sprint final at the Lahti WC in 2017. Klæbo was number three, Northug was number five. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo surpassed role model Petter Northug in the number of World Cup victories. At the age of 24.
– It’s really sick to think about. It’s not something I’ve been concentrating on or thinking about, but you get constant reminders of it here and there. Of course it means a lot, he is someone I admire on the track for many years, Klæbo tells VG after the start of the last hunt in Ruka, Finland.
“Here and there” may be, for example, after the sprint at Drammen, when VG informed him that at that time he was only one win behind Northug.
With a victory in both the ten kilometer classic and the 15 kilometer hunt start in Ruka, Finland, he touched and surpassed Petter Northug in the winning statistics after this show of power:
– It’s absolutely great to break that record. We’ll see how much we finished later, but it’s far in the context of the championship, says Klæbo.
However, he was not entirely invincible this weekend. In the opening of the World Cup he was defeated by his teammate Erik Valnes, but in any case there were three victories in three attempts for the sprint selection.
– We joked a bit about whether “team B” is now 3-0, Klæbo said when asked by Dagbladet about the team’s dominance of speed. Klæbo switched from off-road to sprint gear before the season.
At the start of Sunday’s hunt, Klæbo waited for Emil Iversen and Aleksandr Bolshunov, who started half a minute ago. Although it was exciting towards the end, Klæbo followed with a jerk in the usual style and parked the two rivals.
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Iversen wasn’t particularly impressed with his own efforts when it mattered most.
– Like last year, I totally failed at that, I fought hard side by side with Bolshunov, but he probably had the best lead. It’s a shame, but all the good things are maybe three, says Iversen, noting that Klæbo has parked him the same way, in the same spot, the last two seasons.
P.S! The aforementioned Petter Northug has released a Christmas song. Emil Iversen got six, but the VG critic made two more strict.
