Russia won both women’s and men’s relays at Vindeln today, their women by 4 seconds in a sprint finish with Sweden and the men by a comfortable 2.20 over Norway.
In the women’s race Tatyana Oborina started solidly for Russia, finishing her leg with a 1.11 lead over Sweden. A strange race, with the first three all finishing alone and with no-one else in sight; only from 4th place was there any bunching. Sweden’s Isabel Salen, no doubt buoyed up by her silver medal yesterday, made up that deficit and more, coming in 19 seconds ahead of the Russian. This set up an epic battle between Alena Trapeznikova for Russia and Magdalena Olssson for Sweden, just won by the Russian. Sweden2 came in to the finish third, and third nation to finish was Finland.
In contrast to the women, the leading first-leg men, Jørgen Baklid (Norway) and Vladislav Kiselev (Russia), reached the change-over more-or-less together, but there was then a 1.15 gap to the third-placed team, Sweden2. Eduard Khrennikov maintained his fine form from the Middle race, bringing Russia to a 13-second lead over Norway on the second leg, and Andrey Lamov was by far the strongest on last leg to bring an easy victory for Russia. Lars Moholdt hung on to second place for Norway, and Sweden ended in third place.
The weather for the final day of competition was sunny but very cold; the temperature was as low as -15 degrees when competitors first arrived at the arena. The SkiO elite now have a short break before the start of the European SkiO Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia on 8th March.
In the European Youth Championships, Eduard Khrennikov’s daughter Iuliia won her third gold medal, skiing last leg to bring the Russian team to victory by 5.16.
Leading results, Relay
Women
- Russia (Tatyana Oborina, Marina Vyatkina, Alena Trapeznikova) 108:21
- Sweden (Linda Lindkvist, Isabel Salen, Magdalena Olsson) 108:25
- Finland (Liisa Nenonen, Salla Koskela, Marjut Turunen) 111:58
- Estonia 113:07, 5. Czech Republic 117:02, 6. Norway 124:32
Men
- Russia (Vladislav Kiselev, Eduard Khrennikov, Andrey Lamov) 96:50
- Norway (Jørgen Baklid, Audun Heimdal, Lars Moholdt) 99:10
- Sweden (Erik Blomgren, Erik Rost, Markus Lundholm) 99:59
- Finland2 100:52, 5. Czech Republic 104:57, 6. Switzerland 109:16
Junior World SkiO Championships
W20: Gold to Finland by 2.08 over Russia, Sweden
M20: Gold to Russia by 0.45 over Finland, Norway
European Youth SkiO Championships
W17: Gold to Russia by 5.16 over Finland, Switzerland
M17: Gold to Sweden by 4.36 over Finland, Switzerland