Watch the men and women’s sprint relay live here on FasterSkier.com. Here is a relay preview and startlists.
Norway has won both the men’s and women’s regular relays at this year's Worlds and are among the favorites once again in the two-person freestyle sprint relays. There are 19 women’s teams and 24 men’s team entered. There will be two qualification heats to determine the 10 team’s (10 women’s and 10 men’s teams) that gets to ski the final. The top 5 teams from each heat will advance. A tough or easy first round will affect the skier’s recovery before the final.
Norway’s women’s team is Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen and World Cup sprint leader Marit Bjorgen and their men’s team is Tore Ruud Hofstad and Tor Arne Hetland. Hofstad who placed third in the men’s 15-k skate race also skied the anchor leg on Norway’s gold medal team in 4 x 10-kilometer relay. Hetland captured silver in the classic sprint and is the overall World Cup sprint leader.
As we have said before anything can happen in a relay and 4-5 teams have a good shoot a winning.
Women
In the women’s race the German’s should be inspired by their men’s team come from behind silver medal in Thursday’s 4 x 10-k relay. The Swedes should be on fire after placing 1, 2 and 4 in the individual classic sprint. Italy and Russia are always tough and Finland might bounce back after struggling with sickness, they have good sprinters. Canada was 4th in the last classic World Cup sprint relay and Sarah Renner now with a World Championship sprint bronze medal and Beckie Scott with a pursuit 4th place have a shot at a medal.
Men
Russia beat Norway in the last men’s freestyle sprint relay, but I believe that Sweden might be the team that steps it up to fight for Gold with Norway and Russia. Italy’s Zorzi might not recover for a while from the 4 x 10-k relay and that might be the case for Teichmann on the German team as well.
Canada’s sprinters did well in the individual sprint prolog and could make it into the final where anything could happen. USA with Torin Koos and Andy Newell has waited a long time for this opportunity and has a good shot at making the final too. Booth Canada and USA have to ski their best ever and then some and that is POSSIBLE! It looks from the start list that they will race against each other in the qualification round.
Gentlemen start your engines!
The results from the last World Cup freestyle sprint race in Bern on December 5th. Complete story Russians Take Men's Team Sprint Victory; Norwegian Women Edge Out Germany http://www.fasterskier.com/racing1612.html
Women:
1 NORWAY I NOR 14:45.2
2 GERMANY I GER 14:45.4
3 ITALY I ITA 14:47.8
4 SWITZERLAND I SUI 14:48.4
5 RUSSIA II RUS 14:49.4
6 NORWAY II NOR 14:49.5
7 FINLAND I FIN 14:56.7
8 FRANCE I FRA 14:57.5
9 RUSSIA I RUS 15:14.3
10 SWEDEN SWE 15:14.6
Men
1 RUSSIA I RUS 13:16.8
2 NORWAY I NOR 13:17.1
3 ITALY I ITA 13:17.6
4 SWEDEN I SWE 13:18.8
5 ITALY II ITA 13:19.6
6 SWEDEN II SWE 13:21.8
7 FRANCE I FRA 13:29.3
8 FRANCE II FRA 13:29.4
9 ESTONIA EST 13:38.2
10 GERMANY II GER 13:38.7
The women’s relay starts 12.30 PM European time on Friday or 6.30 AM Eastern standard time. The men’s relay starts 1.02 PM European time or 7.02 AM Eastern time. Watch the race live here on Fasterskier.com. Look for that option on the right hand side of the home page. You get constant updates on each team’s position as they pass certain kilometer markers. If you live on the West coast, make it an all-nighter, don’t go to bed, buy some pizza, drink lots of coffee and Red Bull and enjoy! Mid-westerners and easterners: get up early!
Startliste for sprint relays:
Women start 12:30
1-1 r PEDERSEN Hilde G. 18.82
1-2 g BJOERGEN Marit 1.20
2 GER Germany 60.80
2-1 r BAUER Viola 44.76
2-2 g KUENZEL Claudia 16.04
3 ITA Italy 81.06
3-1 r FOLLIS Arianna 26.79
3-2 g VALBUSA Sabina 54.27
4 JPN Japan 112.18
4-1 r FUKUDA Nobuko 68.48
4-2 g NATSUMI Madoka 43.70
5 FRA France 169.46
5-1 r STORTI Aurelie 72.28
5-2 g PHILIPPOT Karine 97.18
6 UKR Ukraine 331.30
6-1 r JAKIMCHUK Vita 168.86
6-2 g MALETS Marina 162.44
7 CZE Czech Republic 400.63
7-1 r BALATKOVA ERBENOVA Helena 189.02
7-2 g JANECKOVA Ivana 211.61
8 ARM Armenia 700.19
8-1 r SARIBEKYAN Aida 311.43
8-2 g HAKOBYAN Meri 388.76
9 FIN Finland
9-1 r LASSILA Riitta Liisa
9-2 g MANNINEN Pirjo 6.56
11 SWE Sweden 35.35
11-1 r OEHRSTIG Emelie 19.66
11-2 g DAHLBERG Anna 15.69
12 CAN Canada 51.68
12-1 r RENNER Sara 33.07
12-2 g SCOTT Beckie 18.61
13 RUS Russia 90.08
13-1 r TCHEPALOVA Julija 55.68
13-2 g SIDKO Alena 34.40
14 SUI Switzerland 91.37
14-1 r MISCHOL Seraina 38.02
14-2 g ROCHAT Laurence 53.35
15 KAZ Kazakhstan 186.30
15-1 r MALAHOVA Svetlana 121.25
15-2 g JATSKAJA Oxana 65.05
16 BLR Belarus 193.71
16-1 r VASILJONOK Olga 70.59
16-2 g KOROLIK Ludmila 123.12
17 CHN People's Republic of China 429.78
17-1 r HONGXUE Li 200.92
17-2 g HONGYAN Liu 228.86
18 BUL Bulgaria 545.67
18-1 r MALCHEVA Teodora 206.77
18-2 g KOUVA Rayna 338.90
19 USA United States
19-1 r RANDALL Kikkan 94.56
19-2 g KONRAD Sarah
Men start 13:02
1 SWE Sweden 22.35
1-1 r LIND Bjoern 11.02
1-2 g FREDRIKSSON Thobias 11.33
2 SUI Switzerland 62.83
2-1 r EIGENMANN Christoph 26.36
2-2 g VON ALLMEN Peter 36.47
3 EST Estonia 65.65
3-1 r NARUSK Priit 42.76
3-2 g JALLAI Erki 22.89
4 USA United States 95.88
4-1 r KOOS Torin 49.24
4-2 g NEWELL Andrew 46.64
5 CZE Czech Republic 98.84
5-1 r KOZISEK Dusan 63.69
5-2 g KOUKAL Martin 35.15
6 CAN Canada 126.45
6-1 r KERSHAW Devon 56.50
6-2 g GREY George 69.95
7 KAZ Kazakhstan 153.11
7-1 r KOSCHEVOY Yevgeniy 104.64
7-2 g CHEBOTKO Nikolay 48.47
8 AUS Australia 224.77
8-1 r SIM Ben 154.79
8-2 g MURRAY Paul 69.98
9 BLR Belarus 245.07
9-1 r LASUTKIN Alexander 133.30
9-2 g DOLIDOWITSCH Sergei 111.77
10 CHN People's Republic of China 401.47
10-1 r HAN Dawei 185.13
10-2 g LI Zhiguang 216.34
11 UKR Ukraine 446.83
11-1 r GUMENYAK Mikhail 216.62
11-2 g PUTSKO Olexandr 230.21
12 ARM Armenia 723.43
12-1 r SARGSYAN Hovhannes 400.76
12-2 g KHACHATRYAN Edmond 322.67
21 ITA Italy 43.92
21-1 r ZORZI Cristian 25.25
21-2 g SCHWIENBACHER Freddy 18.67
22 RUS Russia 50.06
22-1 r ALYPOV Ivan 30.86
22-2 g ROTCHEV Vassili 19.20
23 FIN Finland 68.96
23-1 r PYYKOENEN Lauri 38.09
23-2 g KURTTILA Keijo 30.87
24 POL Poland 74.01
24-1 r KRECZMER Maciej 52.16
24-2 g KREZELOK Janusz 21.85
25 GER Germany 115.07
25-1 r FILBRICH Jens 85.05
25-2 g TEICHMANN Axel 30.02
26 NOR Norway 118.62
26-1 r HOFSTAD Tore Ruud 114.64
26-2 g HETLAND Tor Arne 3.98
27 FRA France 158.44
27-1 r JONNIER Emmanuel 106.98
27-2 g VITTOZ Vincent 51.46
28 SVK Slovakia 205.73
28-1 r HOLENCIK Stanislav 88.63
28-2 g MALAK Michal 117.10
29 DAN Denmark 250.97
29-1 r MOELLER Martin Troels 73.94
29-2 g SOERENSEN Sebastian 177.03
30 AUT Austria 299.35
30-1 r EDER Johannes 139.35
30-2 g DIETHARD Roland 160.00
31 BUL Bulgaria 566.82
31-1 r BARIAKOV Ivan 230.78
31-2 g TZINZOV Veselin 336.04
32 RSA Republic of South Africa 578.12
32-1 r KRAAS Oliver 111.57
32-2 g FERREIRA Bevan 466.55
