A 100 years ago today, Vināyak Dāmodar Sāvarkar was arrested in London and sent on an island exile where he spent the next 11 years of his life fathering Indian nationalism.
Meanwhile in Trondhjem, the Sunday weather was much better than the day before, with beautiful sunshine and a bit of frost in the night which proved very beneficial for the ice conditions. 4000 spectators had turned out to see how the home favourite would fare against the now ex-World Champion. Oluf Steen was there as well, but no longer a top favourite. The two lead players were to clash head on in both distances today, and for the 500m, Oscar pulled out one of his better sprints, outclassing the others and marginally missing his own rink record from the national championship earlier in the season.
500m:
1.Oscar Mathisen 46,0 2.Martin Sæterhaug 47,8 3.Oluf Steen 48,2 4.Sigurd Mathisen 49,0 5.Jacob Frang 50,2 6.Leif O Sættem 51,0 pb 7.Kristian Fyhn 51,6 8.Ivar Fyhn 51,8 Johannes Fladaas f, dnf Oluf Jacobsen f, dnf
Overall:
1.Oscar Mathisen and Martin Sæterhaug 3 3.Oluf Steen and Jacob Frang 7
The 1500m was next, and here the home favourite did not let go so easily. The pace was high, much higher than the rest. Oscar struggled fiercely to pull away, but Martin kept hanging on. And again his famous energy too soon was spent. Under tremendous ovations, Sæterhaug crossed the line more than 10 meters ahead, repeating his feat from the corresponding meet last year.
1500m:
1.Martin Sæterhaug 2.34,2 2.Oscar Mathisen 2.35,6 3.Oluf Steen 2.44,8 4.Oluf Jacobsen 2.46,2 5.Jacob Frang 2.46,6 6.Johannes Fladaas 2.47,4 7.Sigurd Mathisen 2.48,8 8.Kristian Fyhn 2.53,8 9.Ivar Fyhn 2.54,4
Overall:
1.Martin Sæterhaug 4 2.Oscar Mathisen 5 3.Oluf Steen 10 4.Jacob Frang 11
And so, our hero, the darling of our nation, sat on the train back home again with yet another defeat in his luggage, the third in a row. The World Champion had been seriously dethroned. Maybe he was just a shooting star after all, as predicted by some.
Johansen never turned out for his record attempt at Frogner. In Kristiania the weather was too mild, and the ice was poor. Bjarne Frang won the 500m in 49,0 and Ludvig Engebretsen the 1500 in 2.42,2. Possibly also he may have gotten the impression that it wasn't such a good idea to expose himself so much after all. Apparently, many tended to chiefly blame him for the woeful outcomes in Finland the last two weeks.