Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (25) says that his grandfather Kåre is fine after the battle that sent him to hospital.
Kåre Høsflot is the grandson’s coach, but can not travel that much on races anymore. It did not get any easier after he suffered a stroke and had to be admitted to St. Olav’s hospital in Trondheim on 7 November.
That incident contributed to Klæbo dropping the national cross-country opening at Beitostølen last weekend.
On Friday, he will make his season debut with the World Cup sprint in Ruka, Finland.
– He is in good spirits, trains and stands on. He is on the road to recovery, and that is important, Klæbo told NTB about his grandfather and role model after Thursday’s training session in fine winter conditions.
Klæbo himself is disease-free again after the cold, which also contributed to him standing over the Beito gutters.
– I’m healthy and fast. It will be good to get started with a new ski season again. It’s been a while since last.
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Smart
– TV 2 experts Petter Northug and Petter Skinstad believe that you were Beitostølen’s winner since you stood over and the sprint was canceled due to a storm?
– I heard it there, and then we’ll see if he’s right. I will at least do what I can to press this weekend.
– How important is this weekend?
– It is important considering that you want to get a good start and a good feeling that the work you have done this summer and autumn has been good. Another aspect is that it is about the World Cup as a whole that is also tempting, and that the answers are important with the Olympics in mind. A team will be taken out there as well.
All races in Ruka this weekend can be directly decisive for who gets a place in the Norwegian Olympic squad.
Cold
The weather stations report cold weather for the weekend. The coldest is reported for Sunday’s hunt start with down to minus 18 degrees Celsius. If it is colder than minus 20, there will be no run.
That’s the limit.
– Just touch the stillongs. The weather must be as cold as it gets. We can not do anything about it. We’ll see if the stillongs have to put on. It’s not the favorite. Preferably I will only go with the competition suit.
Trønderen has mixed memories of the Finnish winter village.
Klæbo ran his first Ruka sprint in 2016. Then he finished third. In both 2017 and 2019, he won. Last year he was second behind Erik Valnes, and it was his only sprint loss of the season.
We best remember the episode from 2018 when he led superbly on the run, but fooled himself, took it easy and let the Russian Aleksandr Bolshunov pass him the last meters.
(©NTB)
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