Teamsprint Gold for Norway and Germany
Feb 16, 2022·Cross-Country
After a break of two days, the Cross-Country chase for the Olympic titles continued with Teamsprints in Classic technique. 24 teams on the womens side and 25 teams on the mens side were on the start list. Due to cold temperatures on the weather forecast, the starting time of the race was advanced.
In the womens final at first, all 10 qualified teams managed to keep up with the pace makers up front. In the third leg, Tiril Udnes Weng broke her pole and Team Norway fell behind. With increasing pace, Sweden, Finland, USA, ROC and Team Germany managed to break away by 3 seconds to the remaining teams. Katharina Hennig (GER) took over the lead in her final leg and passed it on to Victora Carl. Carl, who had been put in place as a substitute earlier in the day, knew her task and performed a fantastic final leg.
In the final straight, Jonna Sundling for Sweden and Natalia Nepryaeva remained on the heels of the German but Carl did not give away her phenomenon victory and crossed the finish line 0.17 seconds before Sweden and 0.7 seconds before team Russian Olympic Committee.
The Men’s Teamsprint was equally thriling. In the fifth and final lap of Erik Valnes, the Norwegian tried to get away from his successors Iivo Niskanen (FIN) and Alexander Bolshunov (ROC). But the experts in Classic Sprints did not let go of the leading position easily.
On the high altitude courses, those attempts cost a lot of energy and thus, by heading back into the stadium, Valnes and Bolshunov did not quite keep the speed of Niskanen, who paced up front to give his team colleague Joni Mäki the best possible position. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo took over for the final leg for Norway and Alexander Terentev for ROC.
Klæbo placed his attack up front at the right time, just by heading back into the stadium. Neither Mäki nor Terentev managed to follow up and had to fight for the precious silver medal, which Mäki brought home to Team Finland.
