Olympic sprint Champion Tor Arne Hetland was in tough race with competitor Stig Rune Kveen during one of the men's quarterfinals in the Norwegian sprint opening at Beitostolen on Friday November 14. The end result was that none of them advanced.
Let's Get Ready To Rumble – Hetland Punched Competitor
FasterSkier · November 14, 2003
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The skier who pulled on the pole was Stig Rune Kveen.
“This caused me to lose one position. I still had a possible chance to move up again but some of my acceleration was gone”
Hetland was hoping that the jury would decide that he was going to be allowed as an additional skier in the semifinal when they got to see the television video. He therefore decided to warm up as if he was going to race again.
Both Hetland and Kveen were then called to meet the jury. The video showed that Kveen's pole-pulling had provoked Hetland to punch him.
The Norwegian sprint coach Ulf Morten Aune commented:
“Tor Arne hit him and I have told him that he should not have done that”.
The jury decided to view both of them as equally guilty and none of them were allowed to advance.
Hetland did not get a chance to show how well he is skiing at this point:
“I'm fine with the jury's decision. It could have gone either way. This is sprint racing”
“I felt good today”
How important was this race for you?
“It was the most important race today”.