Elvira Oeberg, with her typical powerful skiing, anchored the Swedish team of Linn Persson, Anna Magnusson and Hanna Oeberg to a 1:14:59.8 win in the first women’s 4 X 7.5 km relay of the season this afternoon in Kontiolahti. The Swedish foursome used six spare rounds to give Sweden its third victory in the first four competitions of the new BMW IBU World Cup season. Germany, with a fast final loop by Denise Herrmann-Wick finished second, 28.1 seconds back. Norway, with three spares finished third, 31.5 seconds back.

First Clean Shooting in Relay

Elvira was quite proud of the team’s performance as well as her own that included a personal best. “We were really in the top the entire race. It just showed what a great team we really have. Us four are here today but we could have been a lot of others. I am super happy with my own performance today. It’s the first time for me to have clean shooting in a World Cup relay. Finally, being able to do it in this position; I am really happy. It gives me a lot of confidence.”

Individual “not a catastrophe”

Regarding her ninth place in yesterday’s women’s individual, she added, “Yesterday was not a catastrophe. It was a decent race but I want to do more than ninth place. What I did today is more like what I want to do.”

France with seven spares finished fourth, 1:30 back. Switzerland finished fifth, with eight spares, 1:48.5 back, while Czech Republic finished sixth, with nine spares, 3:13.1 back.

Little changed for the seventeen women’s relay teams, competing a couple of hours after the men, except that early winter darkness had set in. Ten of the top thirteen teams shot clean in the first prone stage, all leaving the stadium within thirteen seconds. Everyone except Germany’s Anna Weidel used at least one spare in standing, dropping the lead group to five teams within 10 seconds. By the exchange, Karoline Knotten powered Norway to the front with Sweden and Germany three seconds back.

Knotten, “change the mindset”

Second leg Magnusson shot clean in prone, moving Sweden to the front, with Norway’s Ida Lien 7 seconds back and Germany trailing by 13 seconds. Everything changed when Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi shot fast and clean in standing, going out first, with France and Switzerland next; Sweden fell eight seconds back. The top four teams approached the second exchange in a tight pack, with France’s Anais Chevalier-Bouchet tagging her sister Chloe first, followed by Germany, Italy and Sweden all within a second.

Magnusson, “Quite a fight”

Magnusson recalled the tough fight, “I was only focusing on myself, to do my own race. I am happy with that.” In the last standing, “I was shaking; my legs were shaking a lot. I was quite happy with only one mistake and an extra shot…The “Wall” is tough and especially when there is a long track after (600 meters) with no rest… But I had some power left in the last loop, so it was quite a fight.”

Hanna Opens a Gap

Third leg Hanna quickly moved to the lead, opening up an eight-second gap by the prone stage. Despite two spare rounds, she stretched out Sweden’s lead and despite two more spares in standing, the lead grew to 18.1 seconds over Ragnhild Femsteinevik and Vanessa Voigt.

Anchor Leg Mirror

The Oebergs mirrored the Boe brothers earlier with Hanna tagging her younger sister on anchor. The difference was that Hanna handed Elvira a 21.4 second lead over Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, with Denise Herrmann-Wick another second back compared to Tarjei’s zero-second lead in the men’s relay. Elvira and her rivals all cleaned prone in five shots, with Sweden’s lead increasing to 26 seconds.

The “old Denise” Powers to Second

Just like JT Boe earlier, Elvira sealed the relay win with five steady perfect shots, leaving with a 36.5-second lead. Behind her, Tandrevold cleaned with one spare while Herrmann-Wick needed two, putting the German Olympic Champion seven seconds back with 2 km left. Herrmann-Wick was again “the old Denise”, powering past Tandrevold as they climbed “The Wall,” giving Germany second place.

German leadoff leg Anna Weidel described being on the podium as “quite good. We are all pretty happy with second place. All-in-all the team has made pretty good work the last two days between us and the boys. We have a good atmosphere. (Watching the last loop) It was exciting but we all knew Denise could do it.”

Photos: IBU/Christian Manzoni, Henrik Osula