The Norwegian sprint coach Morten Aune was very happy with Saturday’s prolog, but felt that lack of decisiveness and a little heavy legs prevented better results for his sprinters.
Düsseldorf World Cup: Comments From The Norwegian Sprint Coach
FasterSkier · October 23, 2005
– It was too bad that the skiers lacked some decisiveness and showed sign of heavy legs in the quarterfinal. Both Eldar Ronning, Johan Kjolstad and Trond Iversen should all have had a chance to advance.
Almost for Hetland.
He is however not completely happy. — We can’t be satisfied when we are 2 centimeters from the victory, says Aune.
Hetland showed in several of the heats the decisiveness that the other skiers lacked. It’s his routine and the fact that the other skiers respect him. He is also doing what he is doing 100% and dares to complete it, says Aune.
The new sprint comet Johan Kjolstad didn’t do that. He started the quarterfinal heat well, but became uncertain and lost the initiative.
— He said that he got stuck between his skis (no weight shift to the skis). Then you are not skiing fast enough, says Aune.
Startgates were not used.
The race should have been the premiere for the use of individual startgates, but that was canceled after a test on Friday. The problem was that one gate opened very easy while another barely opened after a hard push.
New chances tomorrow.
Aune believes that the Norwegians can fight in the top in tomorrow’s two-person sprint relay as well. Sweden should be the favorite if they compose their team right from what we saw today.
– They had three skiers in the final and Bjorn Lind was unlucky in his semifinal heat. A team of Lind and Larsson will be hard to beat, but we can win if everything works perfectly for us, says Aune
Norway’s teams in Sunday’s sprint relay
Team 1: Eldar Rœnning and Tor Arne Hetland
Team 2: Trond Iversen and Johan Kjœlstad