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Sweden held off the ROC athletes and won the women’s 4×6 km biathlon relay on Wednesday at the Beijing Olympics.
The Swedes took the lead when Mona Brorsson handed over to Hanna Oeberg at the halfway mark. After accepting her sister’s trade, Elvira Oeberg completed the final six kilometers to stop the clock at 1:11:03.9.
The ROC was in seventh place after the first leg of the race at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Center, but Kristina Reztsova made up for lost time to secure the lead for her foursome.
Svetlana Mironova and Uliana Nigmatullina, however, were unable to overtake Sweden. The ROC finished 12 seconds behind the winners and took the silver medal (1:11:15.9).
Germany took advantage of Italy’s slowdown to snatch the bronze medal with a time of 1:11.41.3.
Italian Federica Sanfilippo had kept her team on the podium in the last part of the race, but she slipped to fourth place at the 21st kilometer. Italy finally settled for fifth place, behind Norway.
The Canadian team of Emma Lunder, Megan Bankes, Emily Dickson and Sarah Beaudry took 10th place, 4:47.4 behind the Swedes. It’s the best result for Canada this season.
