CROSS-COUNTRY:

Swedes win XC men’s relay, Canadians best-ever 7th

Feb. 10, 2010 — SRC Staff Report     ►Photos: Men's relay action (Agence Zoom)

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WHISTLER, B.C. — Sweden won the men's cross-country skiing relay Wednesday after Marcus Hellner pulled away on the last leg for his second gold medal of the Olympics. Canada finished seventh.

Hellner broke away from Emmanuel Jonnier of France and Martin Koukal of the Czech Republic on the final lap, quickly building a 5-second lead to decide the race with a couple of kilometers to go. Entering the ski stadium alone, he had plenty of time to grab a Swedish flag to wave as he paraded down the final straight, slowing his pace to a crawl to enjoy the moment.

"It was wonderful, getting to parade into the finish," Hellner said. "It's something we've all dreamed about doing. It's perfect, we couldn't ask for anything more."

The Swedish team of Daniel Richardsson, Johan Olsson, Anders Soedergren and Hellner finished the 4x10-kilometer race in 1 hour, 45 minutes, 5.4 seconds for its first relay gold since 1988.

Petter Northug used a furious final leg to secure silver for Norway, beating Jonnier and Koukal in a sprint to finish 15.9 seconds behind Hellner. The Czechs took the bronze, 16.5 seconds back, and the French ended up fourth.

Norway was the favourite in the race because of Northug's unrivaled closing ability, but he started 37.5 seconds behind Hellner on the final leg, which proved too tall of an order even for him. Northug set a blistering pace from the start to pull within eyesight of the leading trio after two laps, but never came any closer to Hellner.

The Canadian foursome of Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey, Ivan Babikov and George Grey had medal hopes, but settled for seventh with a time of 1:47:03.2. Seventh is the best Canadian Olympic finish ever in the event. The 1988 Calgary team finished ninth, with Pierre Harvey, Alex’s father, a member of that unit.

"We are continuing to close the gap,” Kershaw said. “We were 11th in Torino and now seventh. It is tough now because we are so close to the podium, but we have to be very proud of this result. It is our sixth top-10 at the Games."

"We have to be proud of what we did today," Grey told CTVOlympics.ca. "It was our best finish.

"It looks great for the future. Today, it's slightly disappointing for us, but we will bounce back."

Harvey said, “I felt good at the beginning of my lap today but in the middle of the race, the lead group made a move and I couldn't react to the jump. We have to be happy and I'm looking forward to the 50 kilometer classic on Sunday."

Babikov added, “I am happy with the way I skied. It was tough but we gave it everything we had. My legs are feeling good and we have four days to recover for the final race. The Olympics are a long journey."

Dave Wood, the Canadian team leader, said, “I think the boys fought as hard as they could. They may have had some fatigue in their legs, but they did their best. This is a group of guys that really supports each other and that is so important to their success together. Today they had everything in place. The skis were good and they felt ready. We just didn't have quite the snap we normally do."

Swede Olsson, who won the 30 km pursuit, had saved enough energy to increase his pace as he entered the final lap, quickly pulling away from his French and Czech rivals and preventing Northug to ever get in position to use his sprinting ability at the end.

It was Olsson who paved the way for the Swedes after he pushed the pace on the second classical leg to shake off main rivals Norway and Germany. Only the Czechs and French — who had their best skiers on the second leg in Lukas Bauer and Vincent Vittoz — managed to keep up, as Germany's Axel Teichmann lost 27 seconds to Olsson and Norway's Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset ended up 34 seconds back.

"It was my goal to push really hard," said Olsson, who took bronze in the pursuit. "I felt strong and could really turn it up on the second and third laps."

Soedergren and France's Maurice Manificat then took turns pushing the pace on the third leg to maintain their large lead, before Hellner did the rest for the Swedes.

"The guys did a perfect job," Hellner said. "I just had to close it out perfectly."

Northug said he knew he had no choice but to go full speed from the start.

"I knew if I did one of my best races we had a podium chance," said Northug, who won gold in the team sprint and bronze in the individual sprint. "On the second lap I knew that now it's time to push if you want the podium. We have to be happy with silver."  SRC

— The Canadian Press and Cross Country Canada contributed to this report

Whistler men's Olympic cross-country relay results