Norway can only be envious. They earned another team victory in biathlon.
Mikhail Chesalin December 10, 2023, 20:20 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
The country has the second gold in the women’s relay.
Norwegian biathletes continue to sweep the relay races at the start of the 2023/2024 World Cup. After the men in Hochfilzen, the women also won the team race. And by a wide margin too!
Live streams of World Cup races available on Okko
Although there was intrigue in the race until the final stretch. In the first stage, together with the Norwegian UniArnekleive and the Swedish Anna Magnusson, the German Selina Grotian was very happy. She passed her stage in the leading group and gave German fans hope for success in the race, even in an experimental composition. However, already in the second stage the Germans abandoned the fight for gold and finally finished the race only in fifth place. And in the first stage, UniArnekleive was almost hit by a television camera. IBU representatives promised that operators will be more careful in the future.
Arnekleive University
Photo: Kevin Voigt/GettyImages
As for the second stage, Lisa Vitozzi directed it brilliantly. She passed the baton with a margin of half a minute, but in the third and fourth stages Italy was represented by much weaker athletes, so the team fell to fourth place. Wierer, by the way, is no longer on the roster.
Well, not in the third stage, the true leaders began to come to the fore: Norway, Sweden and France, who fell after a penalty loop made by Lou Jeanmonneau. On the third pass of the relay, these teams, thanks to the efforts of Caroline Knotten, Hannah Oeberg and Justine Breza-Boucher, took first, second and fourth place respectively. Italy came third. At the same time, Knotten managed to separate herself from Oeberg by another 10 seconds during the entire stage compared to the time when she left the race and was ahead by 20 in total.
Related materials
The Norwegians from the reserve team snatched the gold in relays from the Swedes. Wow!
Ingrid Tandrevold, with her speed, it was important simply not to entrench herself in the firing lines, so as not to let Elvira Eberg get close to her. And I managed to do it. Both girls made a mistake during the entire stage, but the Norwegian was also a little faster in the distance, so they didn’t even allow the Swede to aim for victory. As a result, Norway again had gold, Sweden again had silver, and this time France rose to third place.
It remains to be clarified that, with the generational change in almost all the main women’s teams, the Norwegians are still the ones who cope best with it. Those who were recently in the shadow of the stars become stars themselves. The strength of Norwegian winter sports is once again something to be envied.
