Gold for Norway and USA in jwsc2019 relay
Jan 26, 2019·Cross-Country
Second last competition day of FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships started with U20 women’s cross country relay 4 x 3,3 km.
The gold medal team was Norway with margin of one second. Team Russia was second and team Sweden took the bronze medal. The margin between world champion team Norway and bronze team Sweden was 33,3 seconds at the finish.
Team Norway and Russia made a gap to other teams on the first lap. On the second leg Russia left Norway 10 seconds behind but Norway's Helene Marie Fossesholm passed Russia's Veronika Stepanova on the third leg. Team Norway left to the last lap with margin of 1,6 seconds before Team Russia. Russian Anna Grukhvina and Norwegian Kristine Stavaas Skistad were the fourth skiers of leader teams. Skistad passed Grukhvina at the stadium and team Norway took the gold medal.
Norwegian gold medalist Fossesholm told press about her tactics in the relay. "Everyone did a really good job. When I changed with Astrid I just wanted to make the gap shorter between me and the Russian girl and when I did that I also wanted to make a little gap between me and the Russian girl so I could give Kristine a little gap", Fossesholm told. She also said that she was excited when she looked the last lap at the stadium: "I knew that Kristine is a really good sprinter so I was just satisfied".
Coach of team Norway Monika Korra thought that the week has been amazing for Norway. "To end up with a relay today on top of the podium is just the best way possible", Korra summed up the week.
Silver medalist Kristina Kuskova was really satisfied with her performance and performance of team Russia. "All of us support each other and that's why I think we are on the second place today", Kuskova said.
Bronze medalist Linn Svahn was the anchor of team Sweden. Team USA and Sweden fought of bronze at the final lap. "USA was pushing really hard in the last hill but I knew that if I have her back at the stadium I'm really fast in the last 300 meters", Svahn said.
The seventh competition day of FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships in Lahti included Cross Country U20 Relay 4x5 km Men´s race. Winner team was USA with very tight margin of 3.8 seconds. Fight of the second place was very tight. Silver medal team was Russia with margin of 2,5 seconds ahead of the Germany bronze team.
Winner team USA, Luke Jager, Ben Ogden, Johnny Hagenbuch, Gus Schumacher, was happy today their result and gold medal position.
“I knew the pace was going to be really hard in the start and we made the plan just chill out little bit. I was confident with my skis and I was able to save lot energy. It was pretty tight in the end, but yeah I´m very happy”, said Jager. “I think this gold medal we got is just a result of a collective effort with our team, coach support, parents' help and our team mates supporting us”, said Hagenbuch.
A strong Russian team took silver medals. Andrey Kuznetsov, athlete of the second leg, tried to catch the leading teams. “Right from the beginning we try catch that 7 seconds between me and the group. Last period I didn't feel so good today, but still tried my best”, said Kuznetsov.
Florian Knopf, German on the 2nd leg, was happy with the result and the team tactics. “It was really tough race for me, but our first Jacob Milz made very good job. So it was me a good possibility to chase them and in the end I could push more. I had really good skies and I want to thank our serviceman and also our whole team”, said Knopf.
