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Gold spurt decides Relays
Friday February 18 2011 12:39 PM
The Mixed Relay race in Vesec brought the greatest joy for the Norwegian team, with the German squad winning silver and the Russians a bronze.
At the very beginning of a race that suffered from limited visibility, a four-strong group broke away. The Russians took the lead, followed by the Germans, Norwegians, and Swedes. Before the first handoff, the relay team of the country with three crowns began losing, but in the classic leg, Sofia Henriksson, one of the EYOWF 2011 heroines, managed to erase the deficit. Sweden even moved to the front before the third leg.
Solas Havard Taugbol of Norway started several seconds behind, but his run frequency and effective use of his strength gave his relay a crucial spurt. “Our win comes as no surprise, even though one mistake in the relay is enough to change everything. The whole team did an outstanding job, awesome,” Taugbol enthused. Their run was concluded by Thursday’s winner of the 5km race, Losgard Hilde Landheim, who secured a gold medal for the Norwegian foursome. In the end, the Swedes had to make do with finishing sixth, which meant that Henriksson was unable to match the Russian record of four medals.
The Czech relay team, consisting of Píč, Nováková, Knop and Charvátová came eighth. “We are only partly satisfied because we aimed higher,” Petra Nováková confessed.
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