ESOC: Sprint Relay win for Sweden

ESOC: Sprint Relay win for Sweden

39 seconds was the winning margin at the end of an intense Sprint Relay, victory going to the quality Swedish team of Tove Alexandersson and Erik Rost. The silver medals went to Finland and the bronze to Russia.

Each member of the team skis three legs, so six legs of 7-8 minutes in all, giving plenty of action for the spectators over a 45-minute period. The winning team was dominant towards the end, but the race for the other medals was always tight and produced a frantic finish where Finland just got in front of Russia by 1 second. The race became even tighter for fifth pace, where the two teams Bulgaria 1 and Russia 3 could not be separated at the finish line.

Frantic mass start    Photos: Donatas Lazauskas

Tomorrow is Middle Distance race day, the race starts at 10.00 local time.

The Junior World and European Youth Sprint races were also held today. Winners were:

JWSOC: Women, Liisa Nenonen FIN; men, Igor Linkevich RUS

EYSOC: Women, Zoya Chernykh RUS; men, Artemiy Dorma RUS

Results

1. Sweden (Tove Alexandersson, Erik Rost) 47:19
2. Finland (Marjut Turunen, Tuomas Kotro) 47:58
3. Russia (Anastasia Kravchenko, Sergey Gorlanov) 47:59
4. Bulgaria 48:32
5. Norway 49:06
6. Estonia 49:36