March 05, 2011 (Oslo, Norway) – It will be remembered as a day of records. First of all, the Norwegian women skied as if they were starting their first race at the Nordic World Championships with fresh legs. Therese Johaug won an incredible gold in the 30km mass start skate while Marit Bjoergen took the silver as Norway’s women’s team totaled 9 medals after their final event. They ended this giant skiing festival by performing better than the Norwegian women ever have at the world championships – and that’s saying a lot given the rich and successful history of the team.

On the first perfect sunny warm day of the championships, the same four women who won the relay two days earlier – Johaug, Bjoergen, Krista Stoermer-Steira and Vibeke W Skofterud – managed to finish the grueling 30km freestyle event in 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th.

Only Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk, who took the bronze, and Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla in 4th interrupted the red train. Germany, Italy, Sweden and Finland worked together but could not catch the express engine ahead of them.

By the 2.5 km mark the Norwegians had taken control of everything, but then considering all of Norway had come to Holmenkollen, the fans expected no less. Did Bjoergen decide to let Johaug ski away from the lead group of five after 12.5km just to confuse Kowalczyk, and allow her team mate to share in Norway’s golden haul of medals?

She says she didn’t. “Therese was the strongest out there. She is a very strong woman, I knew I had to ski for the silver,” said Bjoergen who saw the gap her teammate Johaug had created by the 20km mark.

But she had reason to chase as well. With four golds Bjoergen was on the doorstep of tying Russian Elena Vaelbe’s total gold medal count at a world championship of five – adding the 30km gold medal to her collection would have done it for her.

But Bjoergen said that does not matter. “I don’t ski thinking about records. I looked forward to this,” she said, when asked about the pressure of being a Norwegian star in Norway. “I was ready to have the chance to race, with the atmosphere and track – I had a great season, but I really enjoy skiing, having fun and having fun with the team.

“That is why I think I do so well. The team win means a lot for me. We have more girls at the top.” Then Bjoergen added with her beautiful Marit smile, “I have Olympic gold and she doesn’t.” And with that she let her teammate take centre stage.

Johaug seemingly danced her way through the 30km, with her high cadence and light touch on the skis compared to Bjoergen’s more powerful but shorter strides. She seemed to float up the hills and was asked if she was the Dancing Queen. Johaug laughed that suggestion off as her clear a victory by such a wide margin that took years of hard training and planning.

“Before this championship started, it was my goal to get one gold. I have one bronze, a gold in the relay, and today I get individual gold. It is such a dream since I was a little girl – I’ve known about this distance race for a long time,” said Johaug, who took the bronze in this event at the 2007 Junior World Championships.

When asked how she tactically planned the three-lap race, Johaug said after the second lap she got a gap on Bjoergen and Kowalczyk and said to herself, “Now I do my race.” She felt she “…I had a really good day today – the skis were really good. I knew my chance was in the uphill – then I got the gap.”

She was asked if it was just the climbs she was concentrating on and taking it easier on the flats. “I also worked on the flats. I think my technique was really good today. I had fast skis and I tried to go fast the whole way.”

By 15km she had 19 seconds on her teammate and 22s on Kowalczyk. Kalla and Stoermer-Steira had dropped off the back and were well over a minute behind while the chase group  of Norway’s Skofterud, Germany’s Nicole Fessel, Katrin Zeller and Evi Stehle-Sachenbacher, Finland’s Ritta-Lisa Roponene and Krista Lahteenmaki, Italy’s Marianna Longa and Antonella Confortola Wyatt, and Sweden’s Anna Haag were strung out between one and a half and two minutes behind the leaders.

Johaug started with her second fastest pair of skis. At the 10km mark when skiers could switch to a new pair, she said she switched to her third fastest and then for the last 10km, she took her fastest.

“I will remember all things – from the start to the end,” she said of, not just the race, but the day. “It is a dream I could never think about. It is a memory for the rest of my life.”

While Kowalczyk was in the lead group, she was not having a great race. Even Bjoergen said Kowalczyk’s skis were slow on the descents and it was easy to gain metres on her. Kowalczyk, who is also the overall World Cup winner for 2011, spent the first 26km of the race in Bjoergen’s shadow, though she constantly struggled with the pace and definitely with her glide.

At approximately 26km Bjoergen, who knew she could not challenge for the gold and therefore would not pull Kowalczyk up to her teammate, stepped on the gas and closed what had been over a minute gap between her and Johaug to 44 seconds.

In the end, Johaug skied to a 1:23:45:1 time, Bjoergen  finished at 44s back, and Kowalczyk won the bronze at 1:34.1 back. Sweden’s Kalla finished 4th at 2:05.5, and Stoermer-Steira, who tripped and fell in the last 400 metres, was 5th at 2:20.8. In sixth was another Norwegian, Viebe W. Skofterud at 2:36.4 back.

A quiet but smiling Kowalczyk said she was happy with silver and one bronze. “I am the winner of the World Cup and I will start the rest of the World Cups this year without pressure and this will be more fun. Then I will rest.

“This has been a really hard track, but a lot of nice spectators. I never started with such good spirit in the track. I will go back home happy.”

While the Norwegians dominated, the Americans told the skiing world they have arrived as a team in the distant events. Liz Stephen had the race of her life placing 16th at 6:22.2 in a field of 60 of the world’s best skiers on a most difficult course. Kikkan Randall was two steps back in 18th at 7:12.2 back, Morgan Arritola was 21st at 7:24.7 behind, and Holly Brooks was 25th at 7:57.4 back.

Stephen bettered her 17th place finish in 2009 at the championships in Liberec earning her best result of the season.

“This morning I assumed that I would have a slow start. I was just going to chase right off the bat and get on a pack that I wanted to be on. If you lose it in the beginning it’s really hard to catch at it later,” said Stephen in a USSA release of her strategy coming into Saturday’s race. “I figured I’d rather blow up half way through and have not such a good result but a really good effort.”

While there were disappointments for Randall at these Worlds, she felt the crowd was a great healer and it was ironic that the top sprinter had her best result in the longest distance event.

“Today was a solid race for me and a great atmosphere out on course. The sun finally came out for us and the track conditions were awesome,” Randall told SkiTax. “The pace was realistic for about 5km and then the leaders surged and broke up the pack. I got in a group of a few skiers around the mid-20’s which ended up including Morgan and Holly. Liz made a great surge going into the first big lap and got up with the group ahead.

“I think I felt better through the race. My quads started to cramp at the end of the 2nd to last lap. I switched skis going into the final lap which helped and then I found that if I just kept a high tempo and the pressure on my arms, I could keep my legs from locking.

“My legs almost gave out on me with 2.5km to go but I was able to fight thru it and stay with Morgan. I had a strong final km mostly because I was just trying to keep the tempo up enough to keep my muscles working. I had good energy at the end, but it was the quads that were limiting.

“It was really fun to ski with my teammates today and we’re super psyched to have finished all four in the top 25. We used to be over the moon with one in the top 30. It was pretty sweet to just have the roar of the fans pushing you around the course.

“Kind of funny that my best individual result came in the 30km. I didn’t have the best of luck at these championships. I am at least satisfied that I came in well prepared and ready, and gave it my best.”

Canada fielded two skiers, top sprinter Chandra Crawford, who took on the 30km skate race and finished 42nd at 12:00.1 back, while team mate Brooke Gosling placed 44th at 13:11.5 behind the winner.

In the end it was Johaug’s day as more than 100,000 Norwegian fans shared a collective smile celebrating her victory.

Video clip HERE
Full results HERE.