Fri Aug 18, 2006 - The World's oldest ski club, Oddersjaa in Kristiansand, Norway organized a 500-meter track sprint and a 3000-meter track rollerski race as pre-match and halftime shows during a premier league soccer match last weekend. Two German national team skiers were up against most of the Norwegian national team. 9662 spectators got to watch some great duels. <>The sprint event took place before the start of the soccer match. There were two heats of four skiers and the two fastest in each heat made it to the finale. <> Petter Northug and Arnstein Mykland beat out Svein Tore Sinnes and Geir Ludvig Aasen in heat one. Frode Estil, Oddbjørn Hjelmeset, Audun Laugaland and Jon Kristian Svaland raced in the second heat and Hjelmeset and Laugaland made it to the finale. Northug was the favorite in the finale but Hjelmeset edged him out at the end (Svaland, Laugaland, Hjelmeset and Estil in the second 500 m sprint heat).
The most anticipate race was however the 3000 meter during the soccer match’s halftime break. Tobias Angerer and Andreas Schlutter from Germany went up against the best Norwegian skiers in a tough 3000-meter on the soft surface.
Several skiers were in the lead on the early laps, but it was clear that it would be a race between Hjelmeset, Northug and Angerer. Last years World Cup winner (Angerer) was not able to maintain his sprint all the way to the line and Northug was declared the winner after the jury had looked at the photos from the finish.
Northug said after the race that it was nice to get confirmed that he is on track (that's probably not a pun in Norwegian) and that he is looking forward to the ski season.
