Den 1. feb. 2008 kl. 23.45 skreiv C. van Staaveren:

> Lars Finsen is commenting someone who clearly loves allround and not
> emphasizing on the distances. That should warm our hart : HE's
> advertizing alround championships...

Well, the world cup was invented to curb this disease, that of
skaters preferring to appear only in the big championships. This idea
has received some knocks in later years, and this is another blow.

Now, perhaps arranging a world cup one week before the World
Championship perhaps isn't such a good idea. But what else can we do?
Should we have the weekend without skating? This is what we'll get in
the future if this becomes a trend. A pure sprint event might be an
alternative, though.

I must add that I haven't lost all my admiration for him. Far from
it. But it is because of skaters like him that we fans love our
Wednesday skaters so much. Because they deliver and give us the wares
week by week, and then someone who hasn't delivered comes and
snatches the championships away from them.

Of course, Kramer has delivered quite a bit this season. Perhaps he
deserves some rest. But does he need it? Has he increased his chances
for winning by resting so much these last weeks? I would have thought
we was a pretty safe bet for the laurels anyway.

Yes, of course, we Norwegians will tend to (secretly) wish for Kramer
to get tired of skating, that would make it much easier for us to
finally get a champion again. But we want most of all to get a
champion with Kramer present at his best form.

I wish him all the best.

Greetings,
LEF