Norway wins the Lillehammer women's relay driven by a possessed Johaug!

Driven out the ghosts of the Seefeld debacle 2019, Norway returns to the victory on relay snow at home in Lillehammer. The MVP of the day was needless to say Therese Johaug who bent all the competition in her own village. Second place for the United States and third for Sweden.

Sunday 8 December 2019 7 minutes reading time

In absentia of the best Sweden, Norway returns to dominate in the women's relay in Lillehammer: the ghosts of the Seefeld World Cup have been definitively driven out, also thanks to a more prudent race tactic - with Therese Johaug deploying the third fraction. A heavy snowfall that has held in check the renowned resort of the Oppland since early morning, making the segments in classic less selective at least among the superpowers. In the final part of the first leg, a perky Masako Ishida tried to make a selection after Maiken Caspersen Falla had kept a conservative rhythm up until then, but both the Norwegian and Johanna Matintalo, Emma Ribom and Lidia Durkina managed to keep their ground. The American sprinter Sophie Caldwell, on the other hand, suffered an inversion of 26 ". The tactics in the leading teams lasted for most of the second segment of the race, always in alternation, but shortly before the second change Finland gained an advantage over the adversaries thanks to a Kerttu Niskanen in great shape that managed to leave in place no less than Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen and Natalia Nepryaeva, as well as the Swedish Elina RÃ¶nnlund. As expected, Japan began its personal shipwreck in the standings with Miki Kodama, while the United States remained afloat thanks to Sadie Bjornsen, albeit quite distant from the provisional podium. As often happens, the third stage was decisive when Therese Johaug literally split the race in two: the champion norge received the change from Jacobsen to 7 '' from Finland, but it took only a few hundred meters to get back up Anne KyllÃ¶nen and leave her on the spot bringing her quartet to flight. So at the end of the first skating stage, Norway saw the victory mortgaged thanks to the almost 50 'margin on Sweden and 1' on the United States - dragged respectively by the brilliant Charlotte Kalla and Rosie Brennan -, while they saw smoking on Finland and Russia podium. With the great advantage inherited from Johaug, for Heidi Weng it was child's play to take home the sixth victory in six races since the beginning of the season for Norway, preserving the national unbeaten record. The fight for the place of honor was more lively with Jessica Diggins returning to Moa Lundgren without any particular worries, putting her in check on the initial climb of the last lap and going solo to a prestigious second place, after last season in the relays the North Americans had always remained dry-mouthed. Third positive place for Sweden that with a line-up of second lines, in absentia of the various Ebba Andersson, Stina Nilsson and Frida Karlsson, managed to behave more than positively, ahead of Krista PÃ¤rmÃ¤koski's Finland. The Finnics have paid a third fraction too weak for KyllÃ¶nen, in which they saw the podium fade a few days before national independence. Fifth place for the second Norwegian formation, lagging heavily after the classic kilometers covered by Lotta Udnes Weng and the very young Helene Marie Fossesholm, but able to climb the slope skating with good Ragnhild Haga and Tiril Udnes Weng. Sixth currency for Russia, whose high-level competitiveness has been undermined in recent months by the pregnancies of Belorukova and Sedova, which found itself sprinting with the co-nationals of the two team. The quartets of the Alpine arc have made so much effort, in absentia of the blue one: Germany closed in eighth place 4 â€™from Norway, while France finished ninth at 5'20â€™ â€™. The cross-country skiing World Cup is now moving to continental Europe: next Saturday in Davos there will be a sprint in free technique, while on Sunday 10 kilometers will always be skated. LILLEHAMMER - STAFFETTA 4x5 Km 1. NORWAY I (Falla MC, Jacobsen AU, Johaug T., Weng H.) 1st 02'22''4 2. UNITED STATES I (Caldwell S., Bjornsen S., Brennan R., Diggins J.) a 48''9 3. SWEDEN (Ribom E., RÃ¶nnlund E., Kalla C., Lundgren M.) to 1'19''7 4. FINLAND (Matintalo J., Niskanen K., KyllÃ¶nen A., PÃ¤rmÃ¤koski K. ) 1'32''5 5. NORWAY II (Weng LU, Fossesholm HM, Haga R., Weng TU) 1'46''5 6. RUSSIA I (Durkina L., Nepryaeva N., Nechaevskaya A., Kirpichenko Y .) 2'25''5 Click here for complete results.

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