January 31, 2011 (Otepaa, Estonia) – Norway took the victory over Russia in the women’s 4×3.3km relay with a comfortable 22s margin while Germany was 3rd bringing home the bronze. The US women claimed a strong 7th place finish followed by Canada in 11th.

The Norwegian team of Ragnhild Haga, Martine Ek Hagen, Heidi Weng and Kari Oeyre Slind were the favourites and up to the challenge with final time of 35:03.6. Germany was leading after the first leg with sprint winner Lucia Anger first off with a very fast lap, but Norway took over on the second leg and never looked back. Slind extended her 10s lead and soloed in ahead of Russia’s Elena Soboleva for a solid win.

The US team of Amy Glen, Kinsey Loan, Jessica Diggins, and Joanne Reid put in a very solid effort moving up one slot over last year to finish 7th at 1:39.5 behind the winners. Diggins posted the second fastest time on her leg giving the US team a boost.

“We finished 7th – I’m so totally excited because we moved up a place from last year,” wrote Diggins in her blog. “The relay went like this: Amy Glen scrambled (classic) and tagged off to Kinsey Loan, who then tagged of to me for the skate half of the relay. I tagged Joanne and she anchored us for a solid 7th place. I’m also extremely excited about finishing second for lap splits to Heidi Wang (Norway) by 5.4 seconds. It was definitely a successful day – and we definitely had some crazy fast skis (yeah Salomon!)”

Reid skied a strong anchor pulling away from Italy only 1s back and made a run for Slovenia’s Nika Razinger in 6th but couldn’t catch her.

“Amy and Kinsey started us out in a very solid place, which let Jessie dig in and rocket us up all the way to 8th place,” Reid told SkiTrax post-race by email. “Our skate skis were absolutely flying – and our tags all went super smooth because we practiced them in the warm up. I got to ski with a Slovenian and an Italian for half a lap until the Slovenian took off and I tried to follow. We ended up dropping the Italian, but the Slovenian dropped me, so I cruised through the finish on my own.”

Canada’s squad of Janelle Greer, Heather Mehain, Annika Hicks, and Heidi Widmer were just out of the top ten in 11th making gains over last year’s 14th-place finish.

Greer and Mehain brought Canada through the classic portion in 11th and Hicks moved Canada up to 10th on the first skating leg. Widmer skied well, but was overtaken by Kazakhstan’s Slonova who started in 12th but had the 2nd fastest anchor lap of the day to end up 9th.

Widmer was able to hold off other strong chasers and closed France’s 13-second gap down to 3s but could not catch Cella Aymonier and finished just over 2 seconds back in 11th.

Team Russia – Elena Serokhvostova, Anna Scherbinina, Anna Nechaevskaya and anchor Elena Soboleva – took home the silver as Germany’s anchor Hanna Kolb battled with Sweden’s Johanna Meyer on the final leg. Kolb attacked on an uphill and broke away to claim the bronze.

“Last year we were 5th and this year on the second place,” said Soboleva. “Next year we will catch the Norwegians and we will be the world champions.”

Norway has dominated the women’s relay since 2005 and their junior women have had a very successful championships this year. The last time their relay was beaten was in Stryn, Norway in 2004 where Russia took the title.

Slind skied the fastest anchor loop – the second fastest of the day second only Anger who raced the first leg.

“It feels incredible to be on the podium for the third time,” said Slind. “I didn’t expect to be on the podium for so many times, it is just amazing. The team feeling was very good and we had a very good start. I was very nervous during the race that Russia will come and get me, but we made it.

“The tactics was not to put the full power in the beginning of the lap, because when the Russia would have come and I had been tired, we wouldn’t have won. I’m going to celebrate this win with two pieces of chocolate.”

Full results HERE.