– It is very dramatic. Not only that there are two who have injured themselves, but that also decides the World Cup overall, says NRK’s orienteering expert Kjetil Bjørlo.
Sunday’s European Championship exercise broadcast by NRK ended with an ugly collision between Norwegian Kasper Fosser and Swiss Joey Hadorn.
NRK EXPERT: Kjetil Bjørlo
Photo: Arild Andersen / NRK
– They simply knock each other out, explains Bjørlo.
– We came at full speed
After the collision, both had to break the competition, and both were taken by ambulance.
– Me and Joey came up with different path choices. We rounded a corner. We came at full speed from each side, and we got head to head. He got a real smack in the nose, Fosser explains about an hour after the collision.
– It feels good. I’ve got a really stuck thigh, so I’m limping a bit now. And I have a bit of a headache. But I think Joey got the worst of it, he continues.
Sunday’s EC exercise “knock-out-sprint” has a largely comparable format to a cross-country sprint. The athletes first run qualification, before they are then divided into heats, where it is all about progressing.
Finally, the top six men and women settle for the medals in their respective finals.
BLOODY NOSE: Joey Hadorn and Kasper Fosser collided face to face.
Photo: Erik Unaas
Pointing to the safety
Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson took the women’s gold.
– But it has been a difficult day, because it is quite crowded on the trail. And we have this accident with Kasper and Joey. I’m upset because of that and it’s not fair. It is a big risk to run this type of race, especially when there are so many people out there, because we need to be able to focus on the map and route choices, but then there are all the people who have no idea that you are there and the other runners who come here and there, she says in the victory interview.
Also during Wednesday’s sprint there were many near misses for a number of runners in the streets of Verona.
– I am not surprised that these accidents happen. Safety for us runners is important, but it is difficult to make “knock out sprinters” so it will be fair, but this is something to think about, says Alexandersson.
Sporting slump
Only two Norwegian men managed to qualify from today’s qualification, namely Cornelius Bjork and Kasper Fosser. The latter is used to quickly winning championship medals, and earlier in the European Championship it was silver.
Last year he also won the overall World Cup. This year, the World Cup finale ended in an ambulance.
– It’s crazy. I felt incredibly good. I had full control, and I was running comfortably in the lead when we crashed, says Fosser about the sporting consequences of the collision.
The Norwegian led overall before today’s race, but now Swiss Matthias Kyburz can pass him.
Victoria Hæstad Bjørnstad did the best of the Norwegian runners today. She made it all the way to the final. The men’s final went without Norwegians.
2023-10-08 12:27:18
#Norwegian #star #picked #ambulance #ugly #collision
