An estimated 20,000 spectators cheered on the team sprint relay event, which made its World Championship debut today in Oberstdorf, Germany. The two-person team sprint format has each individual racer skiing a total of three laps of roughly 1km, with a rest in between each lap after tagging off to their race partner. Although this event has been around on the World Cup circuit for some time now, today's team sprints were the first to be held as part of the official World Championships.
Norway's Marit Bjoergen made up for a dissapointing individual classic sprint result a few days ago, by hammering out an incredible final lap to take gold in today's freestyle sprint relay along with her 40-year-old teammate, Hilde G. Pederson.
