Rydkvist And Westman Swedish Rollerski Champions

Sat Aug 19, 2006 - Rain and wind made for difficult conditions during the Swedish rollerski championship in Burseryd.

Maria Rydkvist dominated the Swedish rollerski championship last weekend and won the women’s race by more than two minutes to Hanna Seppas. Rain and wind made for difficult conditions.

The men’s race took place on a 2.2 kilometer loop that was skied ten times. Rollerski specialist Tobias Westman got a 5-10 seconds lead after two laps. He stayed ahead of the chase group for another two laps before the chase group lead by Vasaloppet winner Oscar Svard caught up to him.

Westman and Svard then broke away with two laps to go. Westman then broke away from Svard in a downhill on the last lap and Svard had no chance of staying with him in or catching him before the finish. Svard ended up second and Mathias Westman out sprinted Marcus Johnson for third.

Westman was happy with the victory and the fact that the pace wasn’t too hard since he had just returned from the European rollerski championship in Russia.

Svard was happy with second place (and the workout) since it was his first rollerski competition of the season, but commented that he was lacking speed at the moment to answer the winner’s final sprint.