Fourth Toblach victory sees Bjoergen make history
BySportsbeat
Published 17/12/2017 at 19:39 GMT
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo's seventh win in eight cross county World Cup races this season has proved a record-breaking success after ruling the snow in Toblach.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
No skier had ever recorded seven wins before the New Year, with Saturday's tenth-place finish the only time he has not stood on the top spot of the podium.
But with the record set straight in the second race of the weekend, the record was not to elude Klaebo, beating the six he was previously tied on with Petter Northug Jr and Martin Johnsrud Sundby.
He did have to do it the hard way though, in eighth place at the 7.1km mark with four seconds separating him from Great Britain's Andrew Musgrave, who eventually finished tenth.
Striding through the field, there was no stopping the Norwegian from yet another strong finish, eventually stopping the clock in 33:31.1.
Second place went to Sergey Ustiugov, who was 1.9 seconds behind, while Alexander Bessmertnykh of Kazakhstan secured bronze in Italy.
"I'm happy to be back on the podium," said Klaebo. "My plan was to go out hard from the beginning to close the gap. It worked very well.
"When I was together with the group I was confident I could ski for a podium. I wanted to decide the race little bit before the stadium."
Klaebo's flying position in the World Cup is therefore not in doubt, sitting on 752 points – more than 300 ahead of Maurice Manificat of France in second.
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