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Therese Johaug victorious at Otepää
Ladies podium. Photo by Hendrik Osula
The first competition today at Otepää’s Cross-Country World Cup was Ladies 10 km classic race, where Therese Johaug from Norway showed her fantastic shape once again and won with 29:53:7. Second place went to Swedish Ebba Andersson (+48.4) and third was Natalia Nepryaeva (+56:7) from Russia, who was also on the podium in yesterday’s sprint, where she finished second.
Johaug has won nearly all the races in World Cup where she has started this season. She dominated today as well taking the lead from the first breakpoint and keeping it until the end. „After my last World Cup race I had a chance to relax. I concentrated on training and my shape is very good right now.“ When asked how missing the Tour de Ski affected her, the winner said that missing out on the long and tiring tour could be both good and bad. „I and Ebba didn’t start there and today it was to our advantage,” added Johaug.
Natalia Nepryaeva, who did take part in the Tour de Ski, admitted that she was very tired after that and actually came to Otepää with moderate expectations. „I didn’t expect such good results, so it makes me very happy,“ said the Russian, who also thanked numerous supporters who cheered for her by the course.
Ebba Andersson, who became second today, said that Johaug really is in fantastic shape right now and sees her Norwegian colleague as a strong rival at the forthcoming World Championships. „This is the fun part of sport, that you never know, who will win in the end. Considering her current shape, beating Therese is a big challenge. But we will definitely try,“ promised the Swedish skier.
