Krueger grabs gold No.2 in Planica after ‘nerve-wrecking’ Norwegian 15km thriller

Amundsen said he had not understood how close to a gold medal he actually was.

“It felt terrible,” the 24-year-old said.

“It was a really hard race and I felt like I just had to be very strict about my pace, not too fast in some parts of the track, just a steady pace. I heard I was like 12 seconds behind Simen so I thought it was a bit long way up to him, but then I saw when I had finished that it was only five seconds, so I was kind of surprised.

“I was a bit surprised that Simen had such a strong lead in the beginning. But suddenly I got positive feedback. I gave it all until the end but I didn’t have the last few seconds to catch Simen.”

For Amundsen, the 15km free at the world championships had been one of the main races of the season.

“It’s a big relief. I’ve been here for ten days now, just thinking about this race, trying not to be too nervous, but when I woke up today I was really nervous,” he said.

“So I’m so happy that I had good skis and a pretty good shape and got a medal. That’s the best I could’ve hoped for.”

Sweden’s William Poromaa broke the Norwegian dominance in the top-six, grabbing the fifth-place before Sjur Roethe from Norway in sixth. 

Another highlight of the race was Ireneu Esteve Altimiras from Andorra, whose strong performance gave him a seventh-place.

Click here for full results from the men’s 15km individual start free.