A 100 years ago today an early afternoon train came rattling in to Stockholms Centralstation. It contained two men who finger-drummed impatiently on the sills of their compartment windows because they’d like so dearly to keep their appointment down on the Hammarby Sjö—Oscar Mathisen and Magnus Johansen, who were to represent Kristiania in the new cup match against Stockholm, inaugurated in order to promote friendship between the brother nations and heal the wounds from the struggles against the union. The train journey hadn’t proceeded exactly according to plan, with unavoidable delays and difficult connections, so the narrow margin they had at the start by now had shrunk down to almost nothing. But the last leg through Sweden had gone more smoothly, and the clock had just struck two as they finally rolled into the station. Thus they had nearly an hour and a half in which to find the track and change into their skating gear.
The sight greeting the two travel-weary Nordbaggar as they arrived at the track did nothing to encourage them. The depression causing the great flood in Paris and the snows in Davos had made its presence felt here also. The track lay under water, and its situation down on the lake made it difficult to clear it away. Nevertheless, the organising crew did their best and at the end of the day the results were far better than expectted. The two newcomers did susprisingly well, considering the difficult circumstances around their arrival; they both won their pairs and at the end of the day it turned out that their times were unbeaten. Oscar won his best distance by near to 6 seconds, and the noise from this blasé Swedish audience seemed to indicate that they were impressed. However, the two other members of the team were less fortunate. They both fell and slid across the watery track, splashing into the wet snow around its circumference, and after finishing their races they hurried up to the onshore changing rooms to get out of their dripping costumes.
1500m 1.Oscar Mathisen 2.34.6 2.Magnus Johansen 2.40.4 3.Moje Öholm 2.41.4 4.Otto Andersson 2.43.2 5.Paul Zerling 2.44.0 6.Birger Carlsson 2.52.4 7.Adolph Költzow 2.52.4f 8.Henning Olsen 2.54.4f Points: Kristiania 9 Stockholm 12