Apparently we were racing in Oberhof today but with bright sun and blue skies you would be forgiven for thinking it was somewhere else! It was the perfect backdrop however to some history making races!
Results
Finland won their first ever Single Mixed Relay with their super team of Tero Seppala and Suvi Minkkinen! They used 5 spares between them, 4 for Tero and just 1 for Suvi, to clinch a well deserved first win and a first podium finish for Seppala. Minkkinen managed to take the lead in the final loop and hold it after Seppala kept them in touch at the front in his last leg.
France were second with the team of Quentin Fillon Maillet and Paula Botet. They needed 8 extra bullets and finished 5 seconds behind the Finns.
Germany finally gave the home crowd something to cheer in third place. The team of Justus Strelow and Selina Grotian used 11 spares and were 25 seconds behind the winners.
In the Mixed Relay it was a magnificent comeback by the Swedes led by Hannah Oberg and then completed by sister Elvira that gave Sweden their first Mixed Relay win since 2011. After a solid leg from Sebastian Samuelsson, Martin Ponsiluoma hit the penalty loop twice but luckily for him the Oberg sisters made up for it.
France were second again when Lou Jeanmonnot who led out of the final standing shoot couldn’t hold off the charging Elvira Oberg, but then no one could! The team of Fabien Claude, who had one penalty loop, Eric Perrot and Jeanne Richard finished 12 seconds down in the end.
Norway took the third spot. After a great leg from Sturla Laegreid there was a very uncharacteristic penalty loop from Tarjei Boe. Ingrid Tandrevold came to the rescue now back firing on all cylinders putting Norway briefly back in the lead. Maren Kirkeeide couldn’t keep it though but still ends the weekend with her third podium.
Hits
Special mention for Latvia in the Single Mixed Relay finishing 10th with the young team of Renars Birkentals (23) and Estere Volfa (19) even with a penalty loop.
Belgium achieved their best ever result in the Mixed Relay finishing 7th with a team of Florent Claude, Thierry Langer, Lotte Lie and Maya Cloetens. Go Lynxes! ( I am informed that they are not the four who were illegally released in the Scottish Highland earlier in the week!)
There were penalty loops galore in the Mixed Relay and only four teams avoided it! They were Czechia in 8th, Bulgaria in 10th, Poland in 14th and Kazakhstan in 18th.
The best relay legs in the Mixed came from Sturla Laegreid, Eric Perrot and of course Hannah and Elvira Oberg.
Misses
The Norwegian team of Vebjorn Soerum and Karoline Knotten found themselves on the penalty loop 4 times in the SMR finishing 8th.
Team Slovenia did 4 penalty loops and Team Germany 3 in the MR. Still at least they didn’t get disqualified like Moldova for failing to stop competing after they were lapped.
Extra bullets
All of these results mean that France lead the Mixed relay score with 300 points. Sweden are second with 274 and Norway third with 242.
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