The Norwegian duo of Sturla Holm Laegreid and Karoline Offigstad Knotten literally blew away their rivals with a dominating 40:39.3 victory in this afternoon’s Otepää Single Mixed Relay. The Norwegians, with only eight spare rounds finished 1:38.1 ahead of Sweden on a windy day when the winners were one of only three teams that did not visit the penalty loop. Laegreid continued on his hot streak, upping his total of consecutive podiums to 11 as well as his fourth consecutive victory.

“She was a machine, mowing down the targets”

Laegreid praised his partner who used just one spare to close her twenty targets. “Today was all about Karo. She was a machine, mowing down the targets in this wind; really, really delivering. She hit the targets almost every time; the wind is trying to make it harder, but she just laughs at the wind. I struggled a bit in the first standing, used a lot of time. I think that lane one was quite difficult today. You feel the wind in the body. The second standing was much better. I had a more offensive plan and gave Karoline a small gap.”

“Racing with Sturla, big shoes to fill”

Knotten was worried about anchoring after several previous bad experiences but overcame it. “I’ve done the last leg a couple of times and had a really bad experiences, so I wasn’t super happy with it yesterday (when I heard I would anchor). I was very nervous. Also racing with Sturla, it’s big shoes to fill. To give him the fourth (win) in a row was cool. I worked really hard with my coach yesterday to switch my mindset to charge today. We had a really good run this morning to talk about it and get a bit more relaxed. I was nervous to do the last loop, but Sturla said it would be decided on the shooting range. That was correct!”

Laegreid added, “I told her with ten seconds you are good and you had 1:45. To which she replied, “But I need more than 10 seconds!”

Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson and Hanna Oeberg had three penalties and thirteen spare rounds in second place. Finland’s Tero Seppala and Suvi Minkkinen, with a penalty and fifteen spares finished third, 1:45.7 back.

Germany’s Justus Strelow and Vanessa Voigt, with three penalties and seventeen spares finished fourth, 2:09.9 back. Poland’s Jan Gunka and Anna Maka with six penalties and fourteen spares finished with their nation’s best-ever mixed relay result in fifth place, 2:15.2 back. Italy’s Lukas Hofer and Lisa Vittozzi with four penalties and fourteen spares finished sixth, 2:16.5 back.

The last competition day was just like Saturday: sunny, warm and windy. Sweden dominated the early going through the first leg and in Hanna’s first prone stage. At that point, Knotten took over with her accurate shooting and the Norwegians controlled the rest of the competition. Their dominance came in the form of calm, good shooting as the wind buffeted everyone, sending both prone and standing shots far from their mark.

Photos: IBU/Dmytro Yevenko, Nordic Focus