Tregubov Wins Gold, son of Legend Finishes in Third

Under blue skis and a warm 4 degree day the Mens 10km Individual Classic kicked off. The pace for the race was set early by Frances Luc Primet. The young french man crossed the line in 9:37.5. For much the race he held the lead, that is until Germanys took to the field  Elias Keck took to the field.

Elias took a conservative approach in the first split. In the second split he increased the pace steadily. The smart strategy paid off as Elias crossed the line in 1st with a time of 27:25.5. As the race progressed some the weeks favourites such as Aleksander and Nikolai Holmboe (NOR), Albin Aastroem (SWE), Ervin Anger (SWE) and Alexey Lokitinov (RUS) threatened the time of Keck but most ran out of steam in the final kilometre. But just when Keck looked likely for the gold along came Iliya Tregubov. In all splits Tregubov posts the fastest time. By the time he entered the last split he was already 1 minute ahead of Keck. In the end Tregubov crossed the line in 26:40.5 a full 45sec ahead of Keck.

“ I trained for 6 years and skied 7’00km per year” said Iliya. “I am very happy to win”.

But one of the brightest moments of the day came in the closing stages when son of Cross-Country legend Bill Koch, Will Koch, took third place. Bill a four time Olympian and 1976 Innsbruck Silver medalist was on hand to watch the moment and said “i’m very proud to see Will achieve this.” Will added “to have my dad on the course and cheering me on was really special. He gave me the energy I needed”

The 15km Mens Individual shook up the medal table as Switzerland, Sweden and Norway dominated the early events. Next up the Nordic Mixed Team event and even more surprises could be on hand.