Relay gold for Norway and Sweden
Posted on | January 25, 2015 | Category: News
At the end of two exciting relay races in which the lead changed several times, the gold medals in the European SkiO Championships Relay went to Norway’s men and Sweden’s women. The women’s race was decided in a frantic sprint finish, to the delight of the watching crowd.
After the first leg in the women’s race Russia 2, Finland 1 and Sweden 1 were within seven seconds of each other. Then Mira Kaskinen was the fastest on the second leg and brought Finland into the lead. On the last leg, the Finn Mervi Pesu was chased by Sweden’s Josefine Engström who started 31 seconds behind. Engström could soon see the back of Pesu and could catch her up second by second, and at the spectator passage both runners were together. After a small mistake to control 15 Engström was behind at the last control, but in the final metres Engström could show her better physical shape and passed Mervi Pesu. So Sweden with Magdalena Olsson, Tove Alexandersson and Josefine Engström won gold, one second before Finland with Milka Reponen, Mira Kaskinen and Mervi Pesu. In third place was Russia 2 with Natalia Kozlova, Mariya Kechkina and Polina Frolova.
The first leg in the men’s race was won by the Finn Tuomas Kotro. On the second leg Lars Moholdt for Norway 1 had an excellent race to bring his team to the front. His lead of 34 seconds was enough for Hans Jörgen Kvåle to take the gold medal for Norway. Second was Russia with Kiril Veselov, Eduard Khrennikov and Andrey Lamov. Sweden 2 with Markus Lundholm, Martin Hammarberg and Ulrik Nordberg won the bronze medals. For the fourth time this week, Finn Staffan Tunis had to settle for the fourth place.
Text: Annetta Schaad, photos: Martin Jörg
Relay results
Women
- Sweden 1 (Magdalena Olsson, Tove Alexandersson, Josefine Engström) 1:43:16
- Finland 1 (Miika Reponen, Mira Kaskinen, Mervi Pesu) 1:43:17
- Russia 2 (Natalia Kozlova, Mariya Kechkina, Polina Frolova) 1:45:33
Men
- Norway 1 (Øyvind Watterdal, Lars Moholdt, Hans Jørgen Kvåle) 1:41:00
- Russia 1 (Kiril Veselov, Eduard Khrennikov, Andrey Lamov) 1:41:18
- Sweden 2 (Markus Lundholm, Martin Hammarberg, Ulrik Nordberg) 1:41:25
Medals table
- Sweden (3 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze)
- Russia (3 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze)
- Finland (1 gold, 2 silver)
- Norway (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
- Bulgaria (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
- Switzerland (1 silver)
- Czech Republic (1 silver)
The 2015 World Ski Orienteering Championships take place in Norway with the first competition, the Sprint Relay, being held on Tuesday 10th February.
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