2002 Olympic Champion Norwegian Tor Arne Hetland had no excuses for his unusual (for him) poor performance in the individual prolog in Saturday’s opening race of the 2003-04 Sprint World Cup. Hetland placed 25th, almost 9 seconds behind the prolog winner Sweden’s Bjorn Lind and did therefore not advance to the next round.
Hetland expressed following the relay (the day after the individual race) where his team placed third, that he was reasonably satisfied.
. I could possibly have advanced if I had started a little more cautiousâ€. </p>
<p>He had no other excuses than a complete “blow-up†following a start pace that was simply too fast.</p>
<p>“I can feel that that’s the full reason. It’s a bit difficult to find the right start pace this early in the seasonâ€</p>
<p>It was close to impossible to get Hetland to comment right after the race on Saturday. The sprint king was incredibly disappointed and needed time to himself.</p>
<p>“I did not want to talk to anyone right after the race. I was like that for about one hour. I would have answered those questions two hours after the raceâ€</p>
<p>Sundays relay was (therefore) a good encouragement for Hetland and Bjerkeli and made for an “acceptable†opening weekend. He felt that it would have been possible to out- sprint the German team for second place if it wasn’t for the difficult, slow and very dirty snow condition.</p>
<p>“I could have managed to capture second place if the conditions in the two lanes in the finish area had been more equal. I should perhaps have tried to pass the Swede earlier in the race as well, however my confidence wasn’t the usual following Saturday’s race. Overall it was an OK weekendâ€</p>
<p>Hetland felt good about getting the first race of the season under his belt. It confirmed that his preparations have been good. Getting that confirmed is important even for the World’s most successful sprint racer. He has been number one for many years now, but is realizing that several Swedes are serious about taking over at the top. Hetland is impressed by the Swedes but not scared.</p>
<p>“As a team they did very well. With Havard Bjerkeli and me in the finals things may have panned out differently. We have to step it up if we are going to beat the Swedes in the upcoming races but I’m far from being scaredâ€</p>
<p>Hetland will focus on solid training ahead of the next World Cup races at Beitostolen, Norway in the middle of November.</p>
<p>“I’m looking forward to solid training. I didn’t let up a lot for this weekend eitherâ€</p>
<p>He needs to ski fast and capture points at Beitostolen if he is going to reach his goal for the season — top three in the overall World Cup (a combination of all Sprint and distance races). </p>
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