A cold made Hanna Öberg miss the season's first race during the premiere events in Finnish Kontiolax. And despite being healthy now and having started in five races, something is not right.
On Friday, she finished 66th in the World Cup sprint in Austrian Hochfilzen and did not even qualify for Saturday's pursuit. Now the multiple Olympic and World Championship gold medalist is also left out of the Swedish women's team in Sunday's relay.
She has not gotten going as we had hoped after her illness. At this level, you need top form, otherwise it's no use and not fun either, says Sweden's national team coach Johannes Lukas to SVT.
Öberg confirms to SVT on Saturday evening that she has decided to miss the upcoming competitions in French Annecy next weekend. Instead, she will head home to Sweden to train.
It has not been as I thought it would be and it has not gone as usual after a cold. Then I feel it's obvious for me to go home and break this, she says.
The Swedish women's team that will participate in Sunday's relay looks like this: Anna Magnusson, Anna-Karin Heijdenberg, Ella Halvarsson, and Elvira Öberg.
On the men's side, Viktor Brandt gets the trust on Sweden's first leg. The rest of the team consists of Jesper Nelin, Martin Ponsiluoma, and Sebastian Samuelsson.
