European Ski Orienteering Championships: Russia wins Sprint Relay in frantic finish
Posted on | February 8, 2017 | Category: Arena, News
An all-out sprint between the Russian Andrey Lamov and the Swede Ulrik Nordberg over the latter stages of the final leg ended in the narrowest of victories for the Russian team. The bronze medals went to Finland.
Each nation can select three teams of 1 woman and 1 man who ski six legs in all in the order WMWMWM. Only the fastest team from each nation counts in the results.
The team of Andrey Lamov partnered with Polina Frolova (Russia 1) was up with the pace throughout and led by 17 seconds at the end of leg 3. Sweden 2 – Magdalena Olsson and Peter Arnesson – was only 13 seconds down after leg 4, but it was Sweden 3 with Ulrik Nordberg (partnered by Frida Sandberg) which came with the strongest challenge at the end. Nordberg set out 28 seconds down on Russia 1, and had already picked up most of this time by the half-way point. At this point there were 6 teams within 10 seconds of each other competing for the medals! Nordberg was very close to Lamov heading for the finish, but was just pipped at the post by the very strong and experienced Russian.
Finland started strongly with Finland 2 (Salla Koskela) only 2 seconds down on the lead after leg 1, but otherwise the home skiers were a little off the pace. Finland 3 – Marjut Turunen and Ville Petteri Saarela – was the first home team to finish, in 7th place in the race behind all the Russian and Swedish teams.
The next nation to complete, Bulgaria, was 10th team into the finish. Estonia and the Czech Republic took the following two places.
Full results can be seen on Liveorienteering.com and the event website www.skiofinland.fi.
Tomorrow sees a change in tempo, with the Long Distance races taking place. There is a mass start with loops format, the men starting at 9.30 and the women at 9.35 local time.
Sprint Relay: leading results (counting teams only)
- Russia 1 (Polina Frolova & Andrey Lamov) 53.22
- Sweden 3 (Frida Sandberg & Ulrik Nordberg) 53.22
- Finland 3 (Marjut Turunen & Ville Petteri Saarela) 54.42
- BUL, 5. EST, 6. CZE.
The Junior World and European Youth Sprint races were also held today. The medal winners were:
W20: G Liisa Nenonen FIN, S Tuuli Suutari FIN, B Veera Klemettinen FIN
M20: G Vladislav Kiselev RUS, S Elmeri Toivanen FIN, B Robin Salen SWE
W17: G Lea Widmer SUI, S Veronika Kelinina RUS, B Siiri Saalo FIN
M17: G Eerik Nurminen FIN, S German Sazykin RUS, B Corsin Boos SUI
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