By Philip O’Connor
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) -Therese Johaug powered to victory to take the gold medal for Norway in the women’s skiathlon race at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, the first gold of the Games and the first individual Olympic gold of her glittering career.
Natalia Nepryaeva representing the Russian Olympic Committee, took silver while Austria’s Teresa Stadlober snagged the bronze medal, but the day belonged to Johaug as she obliterated the field after the switch from classic style to freestyle, eventually winning by a margin of 30.2 seconds.
Contested in bitter cold and blustery winds, the race got off to a chaotic start as Coralie Bentz of France and Finland’s Anne Kyllonen went crashing to the snow after an early clash while American Rosie Brennan was making the early going.
Nepryaeva and the Nordic nations were soon to the fore as the pack spread out and about a dozen racers started to open up a gap, taking turns to lead.
Johaug gradually took control and finished the first lap in front before the Finnish pairing of Krista Parmakoski and Kerttu Niskanen took over for a gruelling uphill climb.
That uphill stretch cut the leading group to eight and their ranks were further thinned by half as the switch to freestyle skis was made with Johaug holding a slender lead and Niskanen, Parmakoski and Nilsson hot on her heels.
Their challenge was short-lived after the switch as Johaug leveraged her raw freestyle power to cruise away from her rivals, opening up a gap of 26 seconds at the 10 km mark.
She never let up, despite a frenetic spurt by Nepryaeva, Stadlober, Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen and Swede Frida Karlsson, gliding across the line with her arms aloft and crying freezing tears of joy in the knowledge that the coveted individual gold was finally in her grasp.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; editing by Clare Fallon & Shri Navaratnam)
