The Norwegian sport press was very excited about sprinter Tor Arne Hetland’s performance in the sprint World Cup opener in Düsseldorf, Germany.
He captured second in the individual sprint race and dominated the last leg of the team sprint relay and took home the victory in impressive style. The VG newspaper called his finish sprint his best and most impressive ever — a bold statement about someone that has won gold at both the Worlds and the Olympics.
The same VG article is further now launching Hetland as a candidate to capture four medals at the upcoming (February) Worlds in Oberstdorf:
– There won’t be much doubt about who’s going to race the last leg in the sprint relay at Worlds if Hetland can maintain this level, said Norwegian cross country chief of sport Bjornar Hakensmoen.
Hetland hasn’t thought that much about the relay yet, but he has thought a lot about Worlds. His ambitions are now coming from a man loaded with confidence:
, individual sprint and 15-kilometer skating, said the sprint cannon who finally ended on top of the podium again in Dusseldorf.</p>
<p>That happened after an amazing acceleration a few hundred meters before the finish line. Axel Teichman looked “parked†, compared to Hetland, in front of stunned Germans that surrounded the course. The official spectator number in downtown Düsseldorf was 350,000!</p>
<p>– I had decided to punch it up the last hill and have the lead approaching the finish stretch. When I turned to see who was hanging on, there was no one there!<br />
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Hakensmoen explains Hetland's progress:</p>
<p>– He has great tactical skills and a sprint that hurts. What he did in the relay was powerful. It takes a man with lots of confidence to do that.</p>
<p>What has made him this much better?</p>
<p>– He has built up his strength the last two seasons and has finally become more disciplined when training at altitude, where he in the past often trained too hard. Being stronger has improved his confidence.</p>
<p>Source: VG Newspaper. </p>
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