Sweden’s Frida Karlsson won the 20km freestyle pursuit in Ruka, Finland at the Women’s Cross Country Skiing World Cup.
With this, she became the third representative of her country to win any of the first 3 starts this season, after c’s success in the sprint on Friday and that of Ebba Andersson in the 10km classic style on Saturday.
Already at the beginning of today, it became clear that Ebba Andersson and Frida Karlsson will be the two who will argue for the victory. At the 4.4-kilometer control, the two had a 30-second lead over the rest of the pack and continued to ride side by side until the 15-kilometer mark. Frida Karlsson then showed she was much fresher and easily broke away from her compatriot to cross the finish line undisturbed in 49:55.3 minutes.
Andersson was second in 33.3 seconds, and Norwegian Tiril Udnes Weng won third place. She finished 1:11.6 minutes behind Frida Karlsson, ahead of compatriots Heidi Weng and Silje Theodorsen and American Rosie Brennan, with a final sprint.
With her victory, Frida Karlsson moved to the top of the overall World Cup standings with 258 points, the same as Tiril Weng. Third is Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist, who has 217 points. Fourth and fifth are Maja Dahlqvist and Ebba Andersson with 200 and 195 points respectively.
The cross-country skiing World Cup continues next week with three starts in Lillehammer.
