Svahn edges Karlsson in Lake Placid 10K for first interval start victory

Linn Svahn (SWE) won the 10km Interval Start Classic in Lake Placid, USA as the FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup returned to the Mount Van Hoevenberg venue for the first time since 1979.

Olympic sprint champion Svahn and compatriot Frida Karlsson, who won gold at the Milano Cortina Winter Games over this distance as well as 20km, were in a league of their own amid heavy snow in upstate New York, just an hour south of the Canadian border.

Jess Diggins (USA), the World Cup leader, racing on home snow at her last stop on World Cup event before retirement was unable to reward the large, noisy crowd with a place on the podium, but they still went wild when she crossed the line in fifth place.

Kikkan Randall, who won team sprint gold with Diggins at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, promised the athletes a tough course in Lake Placid, and she wasn’t wrong.

The first half 5km loop is nearly all uphill with another gruelling climb into the stadium. Even the downhill sections are tough, with lots of tight turns, made even more difficult by the deep snow.

This played into the hands of Svahn, who was the 10^th skier out of the starting gate. At the first checkpoint (3.7km), she was more than 10 seconds faster than Karlsson, who had to deal with more difficult conditions as the snow began to fall faster then the competitors could tread it down.

But Karlsson showed the determination that made her a double Olympic champion, closing the gap to just 0.1s by 6.7km. But Svahn dug deep to open up a gap of 3.1s at 8.8km and held on to win in a time of 29 minutes, 4.4 seconds, 1.4s faster than Karlsson. Heidi Weng (NOR) was a distant third, 22.1 seconds behind Svahn.

It was Svahn’s third individual World Cup victory of the season and 20^th overall, but just the fourth distance win of her career and first in an interval start race.

“Yes, really nice,” said the 26-year-old. “I’ve been doing good on the mass start but never on the interval start so it was nice to finally get the win in this type of race.”

Svahn also admitted it was nice to get the win ahead of Karlsson, who edged out Svahn in the 10km Classic in Lahti, Finland, 12 days ago.

“It felt like we have been going the same speed in this race and in the Lahti 10K Classic,” Svahn said. “In Lahti, she was the strongest and today I was the strongest, so it was a good day.

“I feel like my body is still in shape but mentally I am starting to get tired so today my motivation was the crowd, and to push for the last weekend of the season. It’s nice that I’m still doing good.”

Diggins, already confirmed as the Overall World Cup champion, tightened her grip on the Distance Crystal Globe with her sixth place. As long as she finishes the 20km on Sunday, the last competitive race of her career should be a mere procession.

The Sprint title is still up for grabs going into the final race, a Freestyle, on Saturday, with just 20 points separating Maja Dahlqvist, Johanna Hagstroem (both SWE) and Nadine Faehndrich.

For all the results from Lake Placid, click here

For the full World Cup standings, click here