The 21-year-old from Stockholm Johan Herbert will make his debut tomorrow in the World Cup.

The foundation for the competition was laid in Östersund almost two weeks ago, when after winning seventh place in the classic three-mile race on Sunday, he won the 15 km race in freestyle, ahead of Jens Burman and Karl-Johan Westberg, among others.

- I was a little unsure before they called, whether I should go or not.

But I had the hope up there as I did two good races up in Östersund.

I was very happy, and it is of course a proud moment to always be able to say that you have been to a World Cup.

But of course I hope it will not be the only one, he says with a laugh.

"Very surprising"

Before the victory in Östersund, Herbert's perhaps greatest merit was a second place in the junior-SM's 15 km race 2017, when he defeated William Poromaa, among other things.

And the victory in Östersund was not something he expected.

- It was very surprising, you have to say.

I was not really prepared for it to go so well.

I knew from Friday's race that the form was good, I was not far behind.

And I have been better at skating in recent years and felt that it could probably go well.

My goal was to travel well enough to join the national group for the World Cup in Falun next weekend, as there are more places, he says, and adds:

- Then it went very well.

So the World Cup debut comes a little earlier than you expected?

- Yes exactly!

But you just thank them for that.

"Want to go to the World Cup"

The opposition now becomes something completely different than he is used to, which makes it difficult for him to name any results-related goals.

- It's a little hard to say, I do not know what to expect from myself.

So we can start without any expectations, and hope that I do it well enough to get more chances and then do it better and better every time, he says.

What are your goals for your skiing career?

- I want to be as good as possible.

Then you do not know how good it is, but I work as hard as I can to be as good as possible.

But it is clear that I want to go to the World Cup and Olympics in the future, and hopefully be able to do well as well.

But to hope for it so far is perhaps a little early to start planning for.

But it's a World Cup in a little over a month, and now you're in the World Cup.

You have not started thinking about it right now?

- It's not like I go and look at it, but we'll see ... If it goes well this weekend, maybe start to look a little at how it goes in the future.