Max Novak impressed during the start of the season in Bruksvallarna, with a sixth place, and in Gålå with a ninth place.

It made the long-distance specialist hope for a place in the Swedish squad during the World Cup, but that was not the case.

Novak himself said on his Youtube channel that he was very disappointed and that he feels blown away by the Swedish national team management.

The explanation was that Gålå was not part of the management's selection criteria, which national team manager Anders Byström comments as follows:

- We have written the criteria like this and are looking at Bruksvallarna and last year primarily for this competition.

Unfortunately it is so, but we have to stand by what we have written, he tells SVT Sport and means that they want to see the current riders against each other, in the same competition, before the selections.

Northug: "Shocks me"

Now the management also receives criticism from the former great skater Petter Northug regarding the selection.

- It is almost a scandal that Max Novak is not in the Swedish team here.

It's a course that would suit Max perfectly, with 20 kilometers of classic.

He showed himself in Gålå, which is an important race in Norway, by finishing in the top ten and that shows good form.

That should be enough to get into the Swedish team, so that's almost what shocks me the most about Byström, that he doesn't get a place for Max in the team, says the Norwegian icon to SVT Sport.

Northug does not see the criteria that Byström refers to as a valid reason.

- If you look at the sprint, it looks like they have no criteria at all.

When Max Novak performs as he does, you should look through the fingers.

If Byström does not make it, then he is not up to date on the Swedish riders, so it makes me very disappointed that he did not get a place for Novak, who has deserved it, says Northug.

CLIP: The response to Novak's anger: "It's not reasonable" (03 Dec 2022)

Javascript is disabled

Javascript must be enabled to play video

Read more about browser support

Max Novak is critical of national team manager Anders Byström.

Photo: Bildbyrån/SVT Sport