From the moment Sweden’s Ella Halvarsson left the first prone stage leading this afternoon’s Hochfilzen Women’s 4 X 6 km Relay, there was little doubt that Sweden would prevail as their lead grew steadily until anchor Hanna Oebverg crossed the finish line with an unchallenged 1:06:52.4 victory. Halvarsson, Hanna, Anna Magnusson, and Elvira Oeberg used just seven spare rounds to dominate the second Women’s Relay of the season after finishing fourth in the season opener at home in Oestersund.

Shooting Range Nerves

Hanna admitted a few shooting range nerves resulted in her using three of the team’s seven spares. “The other girls did amazing on the other legs so I just had to bring it home. I enjoyed the situation. Of course, I had a little bit of the nerves on the shooting range, but I think that is pretty normal.”

Lucky Charms

The great team effort maybe benefitted from a small, good luck charm, according to the anchor. “It came from Sara (Andersson) who was not racing today. She had some glitter and Swedish ribbons. We saved the glitter for a later time, but I think the hair ribbons was the lucky charm today.”

Norway finished second, with nine spare rounds, 40.3 seconds back. Germany finished third, 51.3 seconds back, with eight spares. Finland, with nine spares moved from seventh at the last exchange up to fourth with a strong anchor leg by Suvi Minkkinen, 1:01.8 back. Slovakia, with eight spares finished fifth, 1:18.4 back with France following in sixth, 1:31.7 back with a penalty and 10 spares.

Sweden Out Front

Twenty teams lined up on another almost spring-like sunny afternoon with Sweden, Austria, and France leading the pack out of the first prone stage. Halvarsson added a second spare in standing, tagging Magnusson 10 seconds up on Austria with Germany trailing 15 seconds back. That set the tone for the rest of the competition, with everyone else fruitlessly chasing Sweden.

Magnusson easily cleaned prone in five shots, taking a 22-second lead, adding a spare in standing, giving Elvira a 28-second lead over a surprising Estonia Estonia and Germany in third.

Elvira easily cleaned prone, pushing the lead to 35 seconds over Norway’s Karoline Offigstad Knotten and Germany's Janina Hettich-Walz, also cleaning. One more spare in standing and Elvira tagged Hanna 39 seconds before Maren Kirkeeide left the stadium, with Vanessa Voigt following, 54 seconds back.

Hanna lost a bit of time loading a spare round in prone, but the gap still stretched to 48 seconds over Norway and Germany.

Hanna Seals the Deal, Cruises to Victory

One more spare round to close the last target sealed the deal for Sweden, with Kirkeeide and Voigt remaining second and third. Hanna cruised the last loop, grabbing a Swedish flag and waving it as she crossed the line with a dominating victory.

Photos: IBU/Walter, Nordic Focus