By Philip O’Connor
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) -The Russian Olympic Committee delivered a dominant show to win the 4x5km relay on Saturday, with Germany warding off the superpowers of the game to take a sensational silver – their first ever Olympic cross-country medal.
Sweden secured bronze, as particular person dash champion Jonna Sundling made up floor after a poor third leg by Frida Karlsson to beat Finland’s Krista Parmakoski in a dash for third place.
The race will go down as one of many biggest Olympic days for Germany’s girls on the cross-country trails, as they broke early together with the Russians and mixed energy and braveness to hold on for a scarcely plausible second place.
The 4 legs of the race have been break up, with the primary two within the traditional fashion and the second two freestyle, as every racer from the 18 groups accomplished two laps of the two.5km observe.
Norway’s hopes suffered an early blow as Tiril Weng fell following a collision with Latvian rival Patricija Eiduka, however her staff managed to battle their approach again into competition earlier than falling away once more late on.
The Russians took an early lead by way of Yulia Stupak, who led 12.9 seconds forward of Sweden’s Dahlqvist after her first lap. Nevertheless, she was reined in by the unlikely determine of Katherine Sauerbrey of Germany by the primary alternate because the Germans confirmed they weren’t right here simply to make up the numbers.
Sauerbrey’s staff mate Katharina Hennig made a shock break halfway by way of her second lap to depart Natalia Nepryaeva in her wake, increase a lead of 4.3 seconds on the second alternate, with the highest seven groups all inside 30 seconds of the leaders.
The chasing pack was whittled down to a few through the third leg, with Swede Frida Karlsson, Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen and Norway’s Helene Marie Fossesholm tightly bunched collectively.
None of them appeared to have the ability to discover a tempo that might deliver the hole right down to lower than 20 seconds nonetheless.
That left ROC’s Veronika Stepanova and Germany’s Sofie Krehl locked in battle on the ultimate lap, with Stepanova spurting away to victory by 18.2 seconds forward of Krehl to assert the Olympic crown, earlier than Sundling sprinted down Parmakoski for the bronze.
“It’s a special occasion,” stated Stepanova. “It was actually powerful as a result of we now have a win within the World Cup and lots of people say, ‘You will need to win, you should win.’ So I’m like, ‘OK, we want a superb outcome,’ and I do what I can do.”
Whereas the Russians needed to cope with beginning as favourites, the Germans struggled to understand what that they had achieved.
“I don’t have phrases for this. It’s unbelievable,” stated Victoria Carl.
Hennig stated: “It was like a thriller. I used to be so excited when the opposite women have been racing. It was an unbelievable feeling on the finish.”
“It’s superb. We’re so joyful. I can’t imagine it in the mean time,” stated Sauerbrey, whereas Krehl added: “It’s numerous emotion – perhaps I want a while after which I can recognise what we now have achieved.
“In fact it’s a shock, however all of us had actually good races in the previous few days.”
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor and Mitch Phillips; Modifying by Hugh Lawson and Ken Ferris)