February 24, 2010 (Whistler, BC) – Russia won the gold medal in the Olympic biathlon women’s relay on Tuesday ahead of second-placed France while Germany – minus star performer Magdalena Neuner – finished with the bronze. The Russian team’s winning time was 1hr 9min 36.3seconds. France’s Sandrine Bailly produced a brilliant effort on the final leg to beat Germany to clinch the silver as the French finished at one hour 10min 09.1sec.
The Germans finished less than four seconds behind France, having been in gold-medal contention throughout the race. But they were racing without Neuner, who, after winning Sunday’s mass start, announced she would not vie for a third gold and fourth Olympic medal in the relay, due to mental fatigue and the desire to see one of her teammates win a medal. She leaves Vancouver with two golds and a silver.
The young Canadian team finished in 15th while the US team placed 17th. Two of the Canuck are only 21-years-old and are in their first season of top-tier international competition. “We did not achieve our potential, which is a good thing in a way,” Megan Tandy told reporters after the race. “You know, when you’re 15th, you think: ‘I hope that’s not the best we can do.'” The four athletes train together and plan to stick with each other all the way to Sochi Russia in 2014, four years from now.
Ful results here.
Results (brief)
1. Russia (Svetlana Sleptsova, Anna Bogaliy-Titovets, Olga Medvedtseva, Olga Zaitseva) +5, 1:09:36
2. France (Marie Laure Brunet, Sylvie Becaert, Marie Dorin, Sandrine Bailly) +10, 1:10:09.1
3. Germany (Kati Wilhelm, Simone Hauswald, Martina Beck, Andrea Henkel) +5, 1:10:13.4
15. Canada (Megan Imrie, Zina Kocher, Rosanna Crawford, Megan Tandy) +13, 1:14:25.5
17. United States (Sara Studebaker, Lanny Barnes, Haley Johnson, Laura Spector), +13 1:15:47.5
With files from Vancouver2010 and CTVOlympics