Klaebo wins again in Ruka to continue dream start to the season

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo got his second gold in as many days, with a win in the men's 10km classic in Ruka on the opening weekend of the cross-country season.

Norway showed they may be the nation to beat this campaign as they claimed another clean sweep following their 1-2-3-4 in the men's sprint yesterday.

Paal Golberg and Martin Loewstroem Nyenget completed the podium for Norway as Sweden recorded another 1-2 in the women's event.

Klaebo, the overall World Cup winner last year, won comfortably, finishing 20.5 seconds ahead of Golberg, who added his second podium finish of the weekend while Great Britain's Andrew Musgrave soared to fifth.

Home favourite and last year's winner Iivo Niskanen of Finland was forced to miss the weekend's racing due to Covid.

He will be playing catch up as Klaebo takes a healthy 18-point lead in the overall standings with the 20km sprint race still to come on Sunday before he returns home for the second event of the season in Lillehammer next weekend.

In the women's race, Ebba Andersson put in a strong finish to beat out her Swedish compatriot and defending champion Frida Karlsson for her second-ever World Cup win.

Karlsson lost by 5.7 seconds this time around, with German Katharina Hennig another 7.6 seconds behind to claim bronze.

Despite the defeat, Karlsson congratulated Andersson as she fell to her knees crossing the line, Krista Parmakoski, who kept today's champion out of last season's top three, could only manage fifth in this year's distance opener.

Sportsbeat 2022