Johannes Klaebo dominates first sprint of the season at Ruka

Johannes Klaebo can smile: he has won the first sprint of the season. The Norwegian, a double Olympic champion in the specialty, dominated this Saturday the first classical sprint of the season at Ruka (Finland), finishing ahead of compatriot Erik Valnes and Finnish skier Lauri Vuorinen. In the women's category, Sweden's Johanna Hagstroem was victorious.

Klaebo, recognized as the best sprinter in the world for the last two Olympic cycles, had an impressive start to the season in his specialty at Ruka. He was untouchable, dominating each round to win ahead of Erik Valnes (2.01 seconds behind) and Lauri Vuorinen (3.70 seconds behind). After finishing fourth the previous day in the 10 km classical event, he now leads the overall World Cup standings, which he has already won four times before.

Conversely, it was a disappointing day for the French team. Traditionally strong in this discipline, the French skiers struggled as only Jules Chappaz made it through qualifying. Both Lucas Chanavat (38th at 7.82 seconds) and Richard Jouve (36th in qualifying at 7.71 seconds), the two leading French sprinters, failed to qualify, which is quite rare. In fact, Chappaz fell during the quarter-finals and could not defend his chances.

On the women's side, despite the French skiers also failing to qualify, the Swedish national team returned to dominance in the discipline, with Johanna Hagstroem winning ahead of Norwegian Julie Myhre (0.38 seconds behind) and another Swede, Maja Dahlqvist (0.83 seconds behind).