Finnish women ski to 4 x 5km relay gold medals

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The Finnish relay quartet of Virpi Kuitunen, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, Riitta-Liisa Roponen, and Pirjo Manninen lived up to their advance billing and collected Finland's fourth gold medal from the FIS Nordic Skiing World Championships in Sapporo.
      Silver went to Germany, thanks to a great anchor leg from Evi Sachenbacher, and Norway were third. The winning margin was a relatively comfortable 11.9 seconds.
     
Virpi Kuitunen, who had withdrawn from the individual 10km event on Tuesday with nagging back trouble, started fast and built a lead of 22 seconds at the first changeover. Saarinen managed to extend this advantage to as much as 50 seconds at one point, despite being pitted against Norway's Marit Björgen.
      As the race switched from classic to freestyle from the third leg, Riitta-Liisa Roponen was chased by Norway's Kristin Steira, who narrowed the gap, but she could not prevent the Finnish anchor Pirjo Manninen from having an adequate 20-second cushion at the final changeover.
      As it happened, the Norwegian charge faded on the final leg, as earlier gold medallist Astrid Jacobsen ran out of gas and was caught by Sachenbacher.
     
The victory was the first medal of any colour won by a Finnish 4 x 5km women's relay team for ten years. It was also the third World Championships gold in this particular event, following victories at home in Lahti in 1978 and 1989.
      The Finnish team in Sapporo now have 6 medals, with four of them golden. Kuitunen and Roponen each have two golds medals apiece, and their victory in the pairs sprint event earlier in the championships formed the platform for Finland's fancied status going into this event.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Rumours fly as Kuitunen withdraws from event in Sapporo (28.2.2007)

Links:
  FIS Nordic Skiing World Championships, Sapporo

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