Tove Alexandersson wins for the most part, which we are used to. So when she failed completely at the median distance at the last World Cup, it was a sensation. Not least considering that she won the World Cup medal distance both 2017 in Estonia and 2016 in Strömstad.
She started among the last, but quite early it was clear that she would be in the top match. After 20 checks and about 5.5 km in the terrain there was a cross-fight with young Swiss Simona Aebersold.
Tove was three seconds behind at Control 7 where Lina Strand was also present, just five seconds after Tove.
At control 10, Lina Strand had dropped and from there and to the finish it was a fight between two runners.
The map sketches via the TV pictures showed that the two in the gold match both missed a little at Control 11, but nobody else was close.
When they laped 1.2 km from the finish, Tove was a little more than three seconds behind, and she was beaten by Norwegian Norberg. But when Aebersold made a minor miss on Control 17, Alexandersson could move on.
She fought, stumbled, but struggled in goal and won the gold by five seconds.
Lina Strand was fifth, only seven seconds from the bronze.
The Swedish tugging Karolin Ohlsson started well, but made a big miss between control 11 and 12 and was both angry and disappointed afterwards.
- I made the miss that I looked more closely at the other two I ran with. As they ran in each direction, I dropped on the map. I probably lost a few minutes and had to tear up at the end. But tomorrow is a relay and I always give everything to the team.