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Norway Wins Women’s Olympic Team Sprint CL – USA 8th, Canada 11th UPDATED

by skitrax.com

February 19, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – Norway’s Marit Bjoergen and teammate Ingvild Oesteberg captured gold in the Women’s 6×1.3km CL Team Sprint today in Sochi. The medal made it Bjoergen’s fifth Winter Olympic gold for a total of nine Olympic medals, putting her just one medal shy of the record for most winter Olympic medals won by a woman. It also became Oesteberg’s second medal at her first Olympic Games.

Women's final podium (l-r) Finland 2nd, Norway 1st, Sweden 3rd © Nordic Focus

The USA’s Sophie Caldwell and Kikkan Randall skied a strong semi advancing to the final but could not match their performance finding themselves mid-pack by the half way point unable to bridge to the leaders and ended up 8th on the day. Their Canadian counterparts Perianne Jones and Daria Gaiazova finished 6th in the same semi which left them one spot shy of making the final.

“I was really excited coming into today. I was looking at every race here at the Olympics as a new opportunity for me. Sophie has been skiing so well, so I was really excited about our possibilities. I felt really good in the semifinal. I felt really relaxed skiing up front with those guys,” said Randall.

Kikkan Randall (USA) in action... © Nancie Battaglia

“Going into the last lap, I got the word from the coaches that we were in pretty solid qualifying position so I knew I didn’t need to totally dig deep in that final bit there, knowing that the pace was most likely going to be faster in the final,” she continued

Finland dominated the first action-packed semi-final as the Russian, Polish, and German teams all charged to the front. Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) kept Poland in the running to finish second behind the Finns, with both squads advancing to the final, along with teams USA and Germany.

Daria Gaiazova (CAN) [P] Nancie Battaglia
Daria Gaiazova (CAN) © Nancie Battaglia
Canada and the USA were both on the start line in the second semi and Caldwell and Randall skied well and smart, keeping near the front to finish a strong third to easily make the final. Canada’s Jones and Gaiazova did their best to keep pace but the powerhouse Scandinavian teams of Norway and Sweden took control early and pushed at the front.
Norway’s Oesteberg and Bjoergen established a gap over second-placed Sweden while Team USA held their own in third, but Canada skied mid-pack for most of the contest to finish sixth and in the end just missed out on the last spot to make the final.
USA's Sophie Caldwell in the mix © Nancie Battaglia
In the final Norway was on a mission to try and balance their lacklustre performance at the Games. Oesteberg led from the start, followed closely by Finland and Sweden, while the USA trailed just outside of the medals in fourth. The Finns were not ready to cede, however, and they charged to the pole, as Poland and Germany overtook the USA.
But Bjoergen had more in the tank and kicked on the afterburners to gain a strong advantage, leaving Finland, Sweden, and Germany chasing for the remaining medals, while the USA duo skied behind in 7th trying to rejoin the leaders in vain.
Oesteberg handed off to Bjoernsen with a massive 10s-gap over Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (FIN) , while Germany fought to hold on to the bronze. Bjoergen skied her final lap alone, unchallenged, with Finland hanging on to silver, but Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (SWE) overtook Germany’s Denise Herrmann (GER) in finishing lanes to snap up the bronze medal.
Canada's Perianne Jones [P] Nancie Battaglia
Canada's Perianne Jones © Nancie Battaglia
Caldwell and Randall finished eighth, while Canada’s Gaiazova and Jones (CAN) wound up 11th.
“I came into the final ready to chase and knew that the pace was going to be hard, but I felt flooded immediately going up that first hill. I just didn’t have the same pop as I did this morning, kind of a similar theme and feeling that I’ve had all through the last couple weeks. So I really just tried to keep fighting the whole way, even though we weren’t up fighting for the medals where we wanted to be,” said Randall post-race.
Kikkan Randall battles Bjoergen (l) and Ingemarsdotter behind © Nancie Battaglia
For Caldwell it was a challenge from the get-go and she was stoked that they made the final given how tough a race it was. “That was one of the hardest races I’ve ever done, I think. In the final I think people took off as hard as they could go right from the start. So it was a lot quicker pace than the semis and it strung out pretty quickly. So it was a fight the whole time up there,” said Caldwell.”I’m not at all disappointed. It’s a really strong field and its definitely not a given to even make it past the semis, so I was really happy to make the finals in the first place. I think we skied a strong race and went our hardest,” she added.

Results here.




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