“I can’t believe it!”

“I can’t believe it!”

Liubov Balandia of Russia skied an incredible last leg in the women’s juior relay and finished a long time before the second best team.

“It was very hard, but I tried to be the very best”, smiles Liubov. “I can’t believe we’ve got gold”. She started first and finished 2.40 before Finland.

Liubov is from St. Petersburg. Mariya Petrushko and Anastasiia Sopova skied the other legs. They are from Perm in the Urals and Cherepovets in the Vologda region about 500 kilometres north of Moscow. Andrey Lamov is also from Cherepovets.

The favourites from Sweden were third and 3.05 minutes after.