Today’s team relay wrapped up the weekend for IBU World Cup #3, held in Hochfilzen Austria.
The women’s relay was a competitive race from the start with Russia, Germany, and France as the teams to catch at the heart of the race. Sweden’s Helena Johnsson, who won yesterday’s pursuit race after shooting all her stages cleanly, again made it through the range without penalties and was able to pull her team back into the competition. Ultimately it was Russia’s anchor skier Olga Zaitseva who held off her competitors to cross the line in first, just 3.8 seconds ahead of France, 4.6 seconds ahead of Sweden, and 19 seconds up on Germany.
Canada’s team of of Megan Imrie, Zina Kocher, Sandra Keith, and Megan Tandy took 13th out of 24 teams. The U.S. women did not field a team.
Austria Men’s relay team of Simon Eder, Daniel Mesotitsch, Dominik Landertinger, and Christoph Sumann outraced the teams from Russia and Germany to the delight of their hometown crowd. In second and third, respectively, Russia and Germany rounded out the podium with a time that was over a minute ahead of France and Norway, who rounded out the top 5.
The U.S. team of Lowell Bailey, Jay Hakkinen, Tim Burke, and Jeremy Teela placed 10th, just over 2 minutes off the leading pace.
