Attacking Vikings Claim National Titles In Hemsedal

The Attacking Vikings converged on Hemsedal to decide the Norwegian National Championships during the final week of March. The full calendar included slalom, GS, super-G, downhill, alpine combined, and an inaugural team event that pitted regions against each other in head-to-head duals. 

Rasmus Windingstad kicked off another successful run at the National Championships by claiming the giant slalom title over World Cup teammate Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen. He also walked away from the week with a victory in alpine combined and also the team event. Kajsa Vickhoff Lie was equally successful on the women's side after taking the win in downhill, alpine combined, and also participating on the victorious squad in the team event. 

Marte Monsen, a member of the European Cup squad, bested World Cup rookie Thea Louise Stjernesund by just 0.03 seconds in the giant slalom. Meanwhile, the women's slalom proved too close to call as teammates Kristin Lysdahl and Maren Skjoeld shared the title at the top of the podium. Henrik Kristoffersen charged to victory in the men's slalom after overtaking Nestvold-Haugen by 0.33 seconds.

The men's super-G proved to be an extremely tight race across the entire podium. Stian Saugestad eeked out the win by the smallest of margins, just 0.01 seconds faster than his teammate Adrian Smiseth Sejersted and 0.04 seconds ahead of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. Sejersted got his retribution just two days later in the downhill, where he stole the show with a winning run 1.19 seconds ahead of Christopher Faarup of Denmark. 

The first-ever team event at the championships, praised by athletes and officials alike, was won by the team from Akershus (comprised of Rasmus and Tobias Windingstad, Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, and Martine Fosmo Nyberg) who beat out Oslo 3-1 in the final. 

Full results from this series are available here.