Team Sprint (Classical), Women

In the team sprint, Germany’s women’s relay silver medallists, Katharina Hennig and Victoria Carl, caused a major upset after winning gold following a furious final sprint. Silver went to the Swedish pair of Maja Dahlqvist and Jonna Sundling, who took gold and silver in the women’s individual sprint and went into the team final as favorites. Bronze was claimed by the Russian Olympic Committee’s team with Yuliya Stupak and Nataliya Nepryayeva.

In bright sunshine and a freezing cold temperature of -16.7° C, Hennig and Carl had previously won their semi-final and thus qualified directly for the final, beating the USA and Austria. Carl had replaced Katherine Sauerbrey, who was originally nominated but did not feel quite fit. The second semi-final went to the ROC, followed by Finland and Sweden.

As expected, the field stayed close together on the opening laps. On the fourth leg, Sweden’s Sundling increased the pace at the front and, along with Diggins, created a small gap. Carl could not quite follow and handed over almost four seconds behind. Hennig, however, was able to re-establish contact with the leaders. She attacked with Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen and tried to outdistance the chasers. Carl went into the final lap with a minimal lead of 0.17, but on the first climb, the first five closed ranks again. Carl ran the last bend in third place, but had the outside lane and pushed past the opposition. She had the most reserves in the final sprint and was the first to cross the line. It was also a birthday present for their coach Peter Schlickenrieder, who won silver at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games exactly 20 years ago, and turned 52 on the day of the Beijing event. Finland with Krista Pärmäkoski dropped back on the last climb, after making most of the leader’s work.