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| Event type

10/15 kilometres Pursuit, Men

Date14 February 1998
StatusOlympic
LocationSnow Harp, Hakuba
Participants74 from 29 countries
Format10 kilometres (Classical) style race on day one. On day two, runners left in order of their finish in the 10 kilometres (Classical), based on time differential, and skiied 15 kilometres (Freestyle), with final placements determined by finish of that race.
DetailsCourse Length: 15,000 m
Height Differential: 61 m
Maximum Climb: 60 m
Total Climbing: 576 m

The script was the same as in all other cross-country events in 1994 and 1998. Bjørn Dæhlie was entered. Bjørn Dæhlie was favored. He was the two-time defending champion, had won the 1997 World Championship in pursuit, he had won the 10 km classical, so he would start in the lead, and he was better at freestyle than classical. Need any more convincing?

Dæhlie went off with an 8-second lead over Markus Gandler, who was not considered a challenger, but it was 16 seconds back to Finland’s Mika Myllylä, who had been third in the 10 km, and 21 seconds to Vladimir Smirnov, perhaps the best skier in the past five years not named Bjørn Dæhlie. And then a miracle occurred – Dæhlie was beaten. He actually skied rather poorly, for him, in the freestyle pursuit phase, posting only the seventh fastest time. But none of the above caught him, instead it was his teammate Thomas Alsgaard, who started fifth, 24 seconds in arrears. Alsgaard caught up to Dæhlie by eight kilometers, and then sat in behind him for 20 minutes to conserve his strength. Dæhlie tried to pull away but that didn’t work. He tried to slow down and get Alsgaard to take the lead, but that didn’t work. What worked was Alsgaard’s sprint, started at 200 metres out, which pulled him ahead with 50 metres to the line, and brought him ahead by 1.1 seconds. Smirnov also struggled in freestyle, posting only the 11th best time, but his overall race brought him with a bronze medal.

PosNumberCompetitorNOCTime
15Thomas AlsgaardNOR39:37.7Gold
21Bjørn DæhlieNOR39:38.8Silver
34Vladimir SmirnovKAZ40:07.5Bronze
410Silvio FaunerITA40:24.9
511Fulvio ValbusaITA40:25.1
63Mika MyllyläFIN40:26.6
72Markus GandlerAUT40:50.2
815Jari IsometsäFIN40:55.4
922Sergey ChepikovRUS41:00.3
1025Niklas JonssonSWE41:01.7
1123Achim WalcherAUT41:02.9
1216Andreas SchlütterGER41:08.3
1328Fabio MajITA41:31.4
1412Alois StadloberAUT41:33.1
156Jaak MaeEST41:38.7
1614Gerhard UrainAUT41:40.8
1727Johann MühleggGER41:48.3
1831Aleksey ProkurorovRUS42:24.1
1924Vincent VittozFRA42:31.9
2018Sami RepoFIN42:38.9
2134Katsuhito EbisawaJPN42:46.0
2236Mitsuo HorigomeJPN42:47.1
2332Petr MichlCZE42:47.5
2429Masaaki KozuJPN42:59.9
2542Sergey KryaninRUS43:09.4
2639Aliaksandr SannikouBLR43:16.9
279Sture SivertsenNOR43:29.2
2819Hiroyuki ImaiJPN43:31.0
2938René SommerfeldtGER43:49.5
3020Patrick RemyFRA43:56.8
3156Henrik ForsbergSWE44:04.9
3245Lukáš BauerCZE44:16.3
3361Ivan BátorySVK44:18.2
3457Stephan KunzLIE44:18.9
3521Markus HaslerLIE44:31.9
3650Pavel RyabininKAZ44:41.7
3735Martin KoukalCZE44:41.8
3867Martin BajčičákSVK44:54.6
3962Vladimir LegotinRUS44:55.5
4043Patrick WeaverUSA45:07.1
4146Michael BinzerDEN45:12.0
4230Ričardas PanavasLTU45:12.3
4358Elmo KassinEST45:13.2
4447Justin WadsworthUSA45:18.0
4569Zsolt AntalROU45:19.9
4660Hennadiy NikonUKR45:20.1
4741John BauerUSA45:24.6
4868Andrey NevzorovKAZ45:30.7
4963Wilhelm AschwandenSUI45:32.8
5052Luboš BuchtaCZE45:36.6
5144Vladislavas ZybailaLTU46:12.9
5272Mykhailo ArtiukhovUKR46:28.5
5376Janusz KrężelokPOL47:13.3
5454Jordi RibóESP47:27.3
5566Anthony EvansAUS47:43.4
5651Chris BlanchardCAN47:44.3
5764Stanislav JežíkSVK48:30.3
5871Guido VisserCAN48:43.5
5980Vitaly LilichenkoKAZ48:58.1
6073Mikalai SemeniakoBLR49:31.3
6184Slavcho BatinkovBUL49:41.5
6282Álvaro GijónESP49:49.2
6365Jānis HermanisLAT49:55.1
6485Ivan HudáčSVK50:14.7
6586Diego RuizESP51:09.2
6674Ahn Jin-SooKOR51:27.4
6779Park Byeong-JuKOR51:55.8
6881Wu JintaoCHN52:28.1
DNF33Juan Jesús GutiérrezESP
DNF53Park Byung-ChulKOR
DNF55Mykola PopovychUKR
DNF70Aliaksei TrehubouBLR
DNF77Juris ĢērmanisLAT
DNF87Paul GrayAUS
DNS7Erling JevneNOR
DNS8Andrus VeerpaluEST
DNS13Harri KirvesniemiFIN
DNS17Beat KochSUI
DNS26Marco AlbarelloITA
DNS37Raul OlleEST
DNS40Jochen BehleGER
DNS48Robin McKeeverCAN
DNS49Jeremias WiggerSUI
DNS59Philippe SanchezFRA
DNS76Yves BilodeauCAN
DNS78Marcus NashUSA
DNS83Roberts RaimoLAT