18 kilometres, Men

3 days after the grueling 50 km race, the 18 km race took place under good conditions in a much more level track than the 50 km, with only 170 metres of hight difference. Before the start of the race there was a big discussion about the status of the participants in Nordic Combined, starting in the same race. At the end it was decided that the same athlete could participate both in 18 km and Nordic Combined.

Norway then decided to enter Thorleif Haug and Johan Grøttumsbraaten in both events, Jon Mårdalen and Einar Landvik only for the 18 km, and Thoralf Strømstad and Harald Økern only for the Nordic Combined. 17 of the 30 participants in Nordic combined were entered for both events. One of the competitors entered for 18 km only, Landvik, could certainly have taken a medal in Nordic combined. He placed 5th in both the 18 km and the Ski Jumping, but there was no place for him in the Norwegian team for Nordic Combined!

In those days no intermediate times were taken during the race, and for some time it looked like a Finnish day. Tapani Niku with an early start had the best finishing time ahead of Landvik and Per-Erik Hedlund, until Grøttumsbraaten bettered Niku’s time with 35 seconds. 4 minutes later Haug crossed the finishing line 1.20 better than Grøttumsbraaten and secured his second gold in 3 days. Another great day for the Norwegians, with all 4 participants placing among the 5 best.