January 31, 2011 (Otepaa, Estonia) – Norway and Russia duked it out in a thrilling finish to the men’s 4x5km relay that saw Norwegian Sindre Bjoernestad Skar, winner of the 10km freestyle race, claw back a 15.5s deficit on the final lap to catch Russian anchor Denis Kataev with 1km to go and claim the gold by a 2.1s margin. Finland fought off Germany for the bronze.

Further back Canada and the US were having it out as Andy Shields and American Erik Bjornsen skied well on the final lap, with the 6th and 7th fastest times, moving up from 13th and 12th respectively. In the end Shields out-sprinted Bjornsen claiming 9th for Canada with the USA in 10th.

Norway opened strong in the first leg with Emil Iversen leading but Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov, the sprint champ, manhandled Norway’s Erik Bergfall Brovold on the second leg giving Russia a 20s lead. On the third leg Norwegian Mathias Rundgreen chased down Russia’s Konstantin Kuleev but only earned back 5s as Kuleev skied the fastest in their round.

Kuleev handed off to Kataev who was no match for Skar who blasted out with the fastest anchor time finally catching the Russian with 1km to go. Kataev wasn’t able to respond when Skar overtook him on the final slight downhill.

“In my last lap I think I was 6 seconds behind the Russian guy and I went for gold – silver wasn’t enough for us,” said Skar post-race. But the win didn’t come easy as Skar was pushed to the limit to catch his foe.

“My goal was to take the Russian. I knew I was better, but my legs were very tired on the last hill,” added Skar. “I was shaky and I didn’t know if I could sprint so well. My team is great, we have a strong team.”

German anchor Markus Weeger, the 20km pursuit champ, tried in vain to catch Finland’s Perttu Hyvarinen attacking on the final lap and reeling in 12 of his 20s-deficit but Hyvarinen held on to take the last spot on the podium.

Shields and Bjornsen worked well together on the anchor leg overtaking Japan, the Czech Republic, and Kazakstan as both North American teams improved over last year. Russell Kennedy, Patrick Stewart-Jones and Aaron Gillmor rounded out the Canucks who were 15th in 2010, while Tyler Kornfield, Scott Patterson, and Andrew Dougherty made up the rest of the US team who moved up from 12th last year.

Full results HERE.