Sapporo: Hjelmeset gives Norway men 50 km gold

Norway's Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset won the men's 50-kilometer cross-country race on Sunday, the final day of the Nordic World Ski Championships.

SAPPORO, Japan — Norway's Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset won the men's 50-kilometer cross-country race on Sunday, the final day of the Nordic World Ski Championships.
    Hjelmeset overtook compatriot and defending champion Frode Estil just before crossing the finish line to give Norway a 1-2 finish in the last event of the 2007 championships.
    ''This is good for me,'' said Hjelmeset. ''The 50-K race has a life of its own. Frode and I have been training together for 15 years so I had to beat him but we didn't plan it that way.''
    Hjelmeset clocked a time of 2 hours, 20 minutes, 12.6 seconds, 0.4 seconds ahead of Estil. Germany's Jens Filbrich took the bronze 4.5 seconds off the pace.
    American Kris Freeman ignored shoulder pain and muscled his way through softening snow Sunday to finish 12th. It was the the fifth top 20 of the season for Freeman, who injects himself with insulin up to six times a day to fight diabetes.
    Hjelmeset broke the binding on his ski midway through the race and had to get a new ski.
    ''Someone tried to pass me and broke the binding on my ski,'' said Hjelmeset. ''I had to change and get a new ski when I went into the stadium.''
    Norway, which won only one medal in Nordic events at the Turin Olympic Games in 2006, finished the championships in first place in the medal standings with 16. Germany was second with nine followed by Finland with eight.
    Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic led for most of the second half of Sunday's race but Estil and Hjelmeset took over the lead at the 48-kilometer mark.
    It looked as though Estil would successfully defend the title he won two years ago in Oberstdorf, Germany, but Hjelmeset surged ahead over the last few meters to take the gold medal.
    ''Of course, I would have loved to defend the title,'' said Estil. ''But if I am going to lose to anyone I would prefer it be to Odd-Bjorn because he has been seeking this gold for a long time and we are good friends.''
    Hjelmeset won the bronze medal in this event at the 2005 world championships.
    Germany's Tobias Angerer was fourth 10.5 seconds back while Bauer finished fifth.
 
Freeman endures slushfest
    Freeman, who injured his right shoulder in a fall during the 30 km pursuit a week earlier, had a time of 2:22.51.5 with Lars Flora 37th and James Southam 50th in the field of 68 starters.
    "It was a slushfest. One hill was firm at the start and by the last lap, it was slush. It was really soft," said Freeman of the six-lap Shirahatayama course. The weather was sunny with temperatures in the low 40s.
    "There was a north loop and a south loop, and the south loop was slush to begin with and the north was firm — but at the end it was all slush, too," Freeman said. He won the U.S. 50 km CL title at the end of last season in Fort Kent, Maine, but noted wryly, "The pace here was a little faster."
    His result is the second-best in U.S. history behind only Jim Galanes' 11th-place finish at the 1978 worlds in Lahti, Finland, before there were separate "freestyle" and "classic" technique distinctions for races, but in a period when all races were classic, i.e., both skis in prepared tracks — before American Bill Koch popularized skating (freestyle) with the 1982 season.
    Hjelmeset, 2005 worlds 50 km bronze medalist in a snowstorm behind Estil, was part of a five-man lead group that was left from an original pack of 10 skiers within 6.1 seconds of the lead at the 30 km mark. Freeman, who was 10th — 4.7 seconds out at 20 Ks, was part of the chase group through the last half of the race.
    "Around 30 Ks the lead group of guys was too fast and I stayed in the chase group the rest of the way," he said. "The chase would have guys drop back to it, or move up, and some would fall off and die …
    "I put every drop of what I had into there. I was hoping for better things to come," he said. "The wax techs did an awesome job. I had awesome skis the whole way. My glide was better than everybody I was skiing with, a new set of skis I'd gotten from Fischer just before the championships."
    When he was toppled in the pursuit on opening weekend, Freeman said he strained upper biceps muscles in his right arm. "It was all right when I was poling," he explained, "but that was only during the poling motion. I can't lift my arm to the side, so it was painful taking feeds."
    U.S. head coach Pete Vordenberg said, "We knew Kris could be top 10, and he was pretty close to that. He showed he can be a winner although I think that may be a year, maybe two, out. But he's shown he's on the way back. His training's been going well but we have some work to do to erase that 2 1/2 minutes [back] to put him on a podium."
    He also said he was pleased with Flora's effort, starting hard "and putting himself up with the leaders early. His goal was to be top 30, and he paid for it, but he kept fighting the whole way. I like that — go after your goal, no matter what's happening."
    He echoed Freeman's praise for the waxing staff and said the teamwork among all members of the staff — coaches, waxing technicians and others — was "awesome." At the same time, Vordenberg said, "We've got a lot of good stuff to come, but it's going to be hard work and we can't have any illusions. We still have a ways to go before we're a consistent contender."
    The World Cup resumes next weekend with the Lahti Ski Games in Finland before two races in Norway and three final races in Sweden.