Source: Langrenn.com — Translated by Torbjorn Karlsen
The future looked bleak for the privately funded Norwegian long distance team after the main sponsor pulled out, but a solution came in the twelfth hour.
The long distance team was funded in 2002, and was meant to give an opportunity to the best skiers whose goal was to race the FIS marathon cup races. The team was privately funded and the main sponsor was Intersport, Norway’s largest sporting goods chain. The sponsor agreement expired after last season and Intersport did not renew. Some of the team members also retired.
The team started with a budget of roughly 500,000 (US $85,000) Norwegian kroner and had last season a budget of 800,000 kroner (US $130,000), but needed to find a new main sponsor if they were going to survive. That wasn’t easy and the future looked bleak for the team.
One of the main racers, Rune Torseth had decided to retire after the season. He was however determined to try to help the team that he had helped initiate in 2002 survive. He used most of the spring to look for funding. He had set a “drop dead†deadline of last Friday. By Friday pessimism was changed to optimism and Torseth could present a plan to the skiers that they could accept and wanted to be a part of.
 with a 20th from the Norwegian 50-K Championship and a 29th in the Swedish Vasaloppet. Vegard Kjolhammer (19) was 24th at the 50-K championship and won his age group at the Norwegian Birkie.<br />
The rest of the team members are Jorgen Aukland, Anders Hallingstad and Havard Skorstad.</p>
<p>– It’s important that we think long term and develop skiers that can take over for the more established skiers when they retire, says Torseth</p>
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