Cross-Country Skiing: Vancouver 2010 ones to watch – Petter Northug
Vancouver (AFP) – Penpix of stars to watch at the February 12-28 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver:
CROSS COUNTRY SKIING
Petter Northug
Since winning three world titles last winter at the age of just 23, Norway’s Northug has been tipped for gold in Vancouver.
He first rose to prominence at the 2007 world championships in Sapporo, Japan, when he helped the powerful Norwegian team to the relay gold.
Coached by Norway’s quadruple Olympic champion Thomas Alsgaard, Northug continued to progress and hit the jackpot at the 2009 world championships in the Czech Republic.
In Liberec, he took gold in the pursuit, relay and prestigious 50km freestyle races.
He will go to his first Olympics confident of winning multiple titles, but he will have to go quite some way yet to compatriot Bjorn Dahlie, who quit the sport with eight gold medals and nine world titles.
He is the clear favourite for the pursuit title after current Olympic champion Yevgeny Dementyev tested positive for erythropoietin (EPO) in August 2009.
Along with Switzerland’s Dario Cologna and Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic, Northug is a good bet for medals and will again anchor a strong Norwegian team.
In the relay at the world championships, he was Norway’s anchor man and set off on his 10km leg with a deficit of 15 seconds on Germany’s double world champion Axel Teichmann.
He caught Teichmann with time to spare before turning in a devastating final kilometre to give victory once again to Norway and the Norwegians will be the team to beat in Whistler.
Northug is one of the strongest finishers on the World Cup circuit and this along with his other qualities make him one to watch in Whistler.
