Marte Olsbu Røiseland Brings Women’s Relay Gold to Norway
Marte Olsbu Røiseland shot clean in the last standing stage to secure the Gold medal for Norway in the IBU World Championships Women’s 4 X 6 km relay this afternoon in Antholz. Olsbu Røiseland, Synnøve Solemdahl, Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and Tiril Eckhoff, with one penalty and nine spare rounds took the top spot in 1:07:05.7. Germany with Denise Herrmann’s strong anchor leg gave Germany the Silver medal with nine spares, 10.7 seconds back. Ukraine, with eight spare rounds, won the Bronze medal. 18.4 seconds back.
IBU World Championships Antholz Women's Relay
Nerves and Four Gold medalsThe lady who has six medals in Antholz including four Gold medals had some nerves before the start. “I was so, so nervous before the start. The girls really wanted this medal, so I was a bit nervous.”
“Oh, it was a Hit”Cleaning the standing stage sealed the Gold and also made the Norwegian women undefeated in relays this season. “I was so glad when I hit that last shot in the standing and took the lead. I was so happy for the team…Hanna and I was first and second and we knew Denise was chasing us. I had to go with all I had. When I hit the last target, I actually thought it was a mistake. So I was going to use the extra and then saw, ‘oh, it was a hit.’ I was just super happy.”
Czech Republic, with ten spares finished fourth, 31.1 seconds back. Fifth place went to Sweden, with a penalty and eleven spares, 44.9 seconds back. Switzerland, with eleven spare rounds was sixth, 47.1 seconds back.
Blue Sky: Home Team in Blue LeadsBlue skies, sunshine, +5C, long shadows and a packed stadium set the stage for the 24 teams in the women’s relay; all accompanied by just a light breeze on the shooting range. the home team’s Lisa Vittozzi led the field into the first prone stage, used a spare and left alongside Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht who cleaned very quickly. The two came to the standing stage together. The Italian shot fast and clean, while the Russian needed a spare to clean, falling back to fourth. Dunklee was perfect, heading to the first exchange 16 seconds back. Vittozzi, in her sky blue race suit continued to pull away until she tagged Wierer 24 seconds ahead of the Russian team. Karolin Horchler struggled with four spares, leaving Germany 1:10 back after the first leg.
Wierer’s Brilliant Standing Stage
Wierer used a spare round to clean her prone targets and was gone before Poland’s Monika Hojnisz-Starega fired a shot on lane 2. She and Russia’s Irina Starykh headed to the standing stage 32 seconds behind the Italian. Tandrevold’s clean stage brought the Norwegians up to fourth, 37 seconds out of the lead. Wierer’s standing stage was brilliant: a blazingly fast 19 seconds and perfect. She flew out of the stadium as the crowd roared with a 58 second lead over Poland, with Czech Republic and Norway following. The Italian star tagged Federica Sanfilippo with the same 58-second gap over Poland. Russia, Czech Republic and Norway were next; 1:08 to 1:11 back.
PenaltiesSanfilippo lost time in prone, using two spares, while Svetlana Mironova went 5-for-5 to solidify second position for Russia, 37 seconds back with Poland alongside. Tiril Eckhoff skiing fast used three spare rounds to hold fourth. Carolina Zuk cleaned standing for Poland with one spare, while the Italian picked up two penalties, falling from contention. Franziska Preuss was perfect to get away in second, 34 seconds back. Eckhoff paid the price for pushing so hard on the tracks, also taking one tour of the penalty loop to drop to 8th position, 47 seconds back. Poland led by a surprising 42 seconds when anchor Magdalena Gwizdon took over. Olsbu Røiseland and her nemesis Herrmann went out side-by-side, needing 42 plus seconds to get the Gold medal.
Olsbu Røiseland’s Standing PerfectionGwizdon used two spare rounds while Olsbu Røiseland and Oeberg were fast and clean, moving to just over 7 seconds behind the leading Polish team. Hermann needed two spare rounds, slipping back to sixth. Norway and Sweden took over the lead mid-way through the next loop. Hermann flew over the tracks, coming up to 4th, 14 seconds back. The Norwegian went 5-for-5 to secure the Gold medal, while Oeberg ended up on the penalty loop. Olena Pidhrushna used a single spare to put Ukraine in second position, ahead of Czech Republic. However Herrmann, even with two spares was just a couple of seconds back with a medal in sight.
Unchallenged
Olsbu Røiseland was unchallenged in the last loop, skiing just fast enough to secure the win while saving energy for Sunday’s mass start and potentially another old medal. Herrmann moved up, pulling pulled away from the Ukrainian to give Germany another Silver medal. Ukraine won the Bronze medal for the second consecutive season.
Legs Shaking; Went for SilverHerrmann commented on her day. “It was an amazing race. The positions were changing all the time. I was happy to make the first loop with Marte, and then I knew the speed was okay. Maybe I could save some energy; you do not know what will happen…the shooting range is not so easy because when you push a bit too hard, you do not hit the targets. My main goal was to make a clean shooting…It was not so easy; my legs were shaking in the last shooting. When I went out, I saw everything was possible and I went for Silver.”
Lot of ExperienceUkrainian anchor Pidhrushna knew Herrmann would be hard to hold off. “I am usually the last leg. I know most of the strongest competitors are at the end. I have a lot of experience, but today Denise was really strong and I could not compete with her. But we have a competition tomorrow and we will see.”
Photos: IBU/Petr Slavik, Christian Manzoni
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