Last winter’s shooting star Jarl Riiber has taken his first national title. At the Norwegian championships held in Oslo and Beitostølen, 18-year-old Riiber held team veteran Haavard Klemetsen at bay and finished first, 14.4 seconds ahead of his teammate. The third rank went to Magnus Krog who crossed the finish line 27.3 seconds later.

Riiber showed a strong jumping performance at Midtstubakken in Oslo on Thursday and lead the field with a total of 138.4 points after his 102 metre-jump. This translated into a time advantage of 42 seconds on the track in Beitostølen on Saturday and as second-ranked Klemetsen remarked after his 104.5 metres (127.9 p.), the race to catch up with the team youngster proved to be a hard one.

In the end, Riiber only needed the ninth fastest cross-country time to conserve 14.4 seconds of his advantage and take home his first major win. The fastest athlete on skis was Magnus Krog who finished the 10 kilometres in 25:35.6 and improved a 13th rank after a weaker jump into a final third position.

Ranks four, five and six went to Jan Schmid, Espen Andersen and Mikko Kokslien.