Ski Orienteering World Cup, Event 3: Swedes and Russians edge in front in relays
Posted on | January 16, 2010 | Category: News
The second event of the day was a sprint relay, two athletes per team each skiing three legs. Competition was fast and furious throughout, ending with tight wins for a women’s team from Sweden and a men’s from Russia.
Sweden’s athletes will take great heart from their performance in the women’s race, in which they took 1st and 2nd places. The winning team of Josefine Engström and Helene Söderlund was in third place at the end of leg 5, but ended with a winning margin of 0.6 seconds. The Finnish team of Marttiina Joensuu and Liisa Anttila led at the end of legs 3 and 4 but in the end just could not match the pace of the Swedes.
The men’s race was dominated largely by the Russian team of Andrei Lamov and Eduard Khrennikov. They led the race at the end of legs 2 and 3, but a mistake on leg 4 allowed the leading Finnish and Swedish teams to get ahead. Lamov and Khrennikov re-asserted their authority on legs 5 and 6, however, to win by almost 8 seconds.
The race counts for points both for the relay competition (nations) and the sprint World Cup (individuals, based on the performance of the team).
The final race in this round of the World Cup at St. Petersburg is over Long distance, on Monday.
Leading results, Event 3
Women
1. Engström/Söderlund SWE 38:14,8
2. Zetterberg/Rickardsson SWE 38:15,4
3. Joensuu/Anttila FIN 38:22,1
4. Kravchenko/Tomilova RUS 38:23,4
5. Larsen/Reenaas NOR 39:41,9
6. Tunis/Kempas FIN 40:11,1
Men
1. Lamov/Khrennikov RUS 39:41,3
2. Taivainen/Tunis FIN 39:49,2
3. Arnesson/Rost SWE 39:54,7
4. Kvaale/Moholdt NOR 40:53,7
5. Hammarberg/Granath SWE 41:10,0
6. Grigoriev/Gruzdev RUS 41:11,2