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Record-breaking Norwegian mountaineer gets hero’s welcome in Nepal

Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her Nepali guide Tenjin ‘Lama’ Sherpa were greeted with a hero’s welcome in Nepal on Saturday after the pair became the fastest people to summit the world's 14 highest mountains last week.

Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her Nepali guide
Norwegian climber Kristin Harila (right) and Nepali guide Tenjin Sherpa (centre) pictured upon their arrival at the Tribhuvan International airport in Kathmandu. Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP

The Norwegian climber and her Nepali guide set the record last month for the fastest summit of all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre mountains, completing the feat in only 92 days.

The pair surpassed Nepal-born British adventurer Nirmal Purja’s 2019 record of six months and six days.

Sherpas performed religious rites and a band played songs as the team arrived in Kathmandu while several hundred well-wishers held out flowers and waved national flags.

The pair, joined by other record-holding climbers, stood on a van adorned with garlands and took a victory tour around the city.

“I don’t think I will climb any eight thousand metres for a while,” Harila told the crowd.

“I will be outside and come back to Nepal again, but not in this way.”

READ ALSO: Record-breaking Kristin Harila prepares for life back in Norway

Harila is a native of Vadso, on the Barents Sea in Norway’s northernmost reaches, where the highest point is just 633 metres.

In her race to the record, Harila had to repeat the summit of 12 mountains, including K2, after delays in securing visas from China to climb Shishapangma and Cho Oyu.

Lama, who has been a guide since the age of 16, was Harila’s companion throughout her record-breaking journey.

More than 40 people have summited the world’s top 14 peaks, but only a few of them are women.

“If you go and look at history, it’s been all about men,” Harila told AFP in an interview last week.

“I haven’t been thinking too much about the record,” she added. “For me, I wanted to change something.”

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Norwegian police charge Olympic champion’s father for domestic violence

Norwegian police said Monday that Gjert Ingebrigtsen, father and former coach of 1,500m Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, had been charged with domestic violence against a family member.

Norwegian police charge Olympic champion's father for domestic violence

Jakob Ingebrigtsen and two of his brothers, Henrik and Filip, who are also athletes, shocked Norway last October when they accused their father of being violent.

“We grew up with a very aggressive and authoritarian father, who used physical violence and threats as part of his upbringing,” the brothers wrote in an op-ed for newspaper VG. “We still feel a sense of discomfort and fear that we have felt since childhood,” they added.

Police opened a probe into the abuse claims and on Monday said prosecutors had decided to charge Gjert Ingebrigtsen, 58, with domestic violence against one of his children.

According to a source close to the case, the acts in question do not concern the trio of known athletes but another, younger child.

Over a period of four years, from 2018 to 2022, Gjert Ingebrigtsen allegedly manhandled, insulted, threatened and hit the child in the face with his hand or with a towel.

Responding to questions from AFP, Therese Braut Vage, who led the investigation, would not confirm this account.

Police said they had closed investigations into other events concerning the six other children in the home either due to a lack of evidence or, in one case, because the statute of limitations having expired.

Gjert, who coached Jakob until after the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo — where Jakob won the gold — has always denied the accusations against him.

“As far as the dismissed cases, we agree that there is no evidence to prove that Ingebrigtsen committed any wrongdoing,” his lawyer John Christian Elden told AFP on Monday.

“For the rest, Ingebrigtsen disputes the description of the facts on which the indictment is based — and he therefore does not admit his guilt,” he continued in an email.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is the most successful of the three brothers, twice winning gold in the world championships 5000m in 2022 and 2023, as well as the Olympic 1500m gold.

The 23-year-old is also preparing for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Henrik, 33, and Filip, 31, were European champions in the 1500m in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

After breaking with his sons, Gjert Ingebrigtsen shocked Norwegian athletics by becoming the trainer of another runner, Narve Gilje Nordas.

The Norwegian Olympic Committee has said that Gjert will not be granted accreditation for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, as was the case at last year’s World Athletics Championships.

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