Biathlon skier Ole Einar Bjorndalen and cross country skier Espen Harald Bjerke won a running and shooting two-person relay in Livigno, Italy a little more than a week ago.
The competition took place when the Norwegian cross country and biathlon team did a combined workout at their on-going altitude camps. The relay consisted of running and shooting. The teams ran a loop that took roughly three minutes and shoot four times each with penalty loops for each miss. It was a show worth watching according to the cross country coach, Krister Soregard.
It was lots of fun. The shooting skills of the cross country team was not much to brag about and they averaged about 10-15 misses. Tore Ruud Hofstad managed however to shoot his first 10 shoots with only one miss.
Ole Einar Borndalen and Espen Harald Bjerke won with time of 39.06 and were three seconds ahead of Egil Gjelland and Anders Aukland. Third were Tor Halvor Bjornstad and Krister Skjeldal. They were 59 seconds behind the winner. Fourth were Tore Ruud Hofstad and Stian Eckhoff, 1.03 minutes behind. Frode Andresen and Halvor Hanevold were 1.18 minutes behind. Thomas Alsgaard and physical therapist Odd Snerthammer came in 6th place 2.03 minutes behind the winning team and Jens Arne Svartedal and Lars Berger was 7th, 2.33 minutes behind.
