Italians win ski relay race, Russia finishes on 6-th position
Sportsmen of Italian team became Olympic champions in men`s 4x10 km relay race. Demonstrating brilliant result the home team of Olympiad-2006 won Olympic gold.
In struggle for silver medals German team took the lead over Swedes at finish straight. Russian team consisting of Sergey Novikov, Vasily Rochev, Ivan Alypov and Evgeny Dementiev finished on 6-th position losing 1 minute and 24 seconds to the leader.
During first 2 stages 7-8 teams formed a leading group. Sergey Novikov was losing less than 15 seconds to leaders and Vasily Rochev was on second position after 2 stage.
Alypov hung to the leading pack for third part of distance but then got tired and started to fall behind. As a result Evgeni Demetiev started the last stage with a minute lag from leaders. There were no chances for medal in this situation. During third stage, which became the decisive in struggle for medals, Italian team drew out, leaving teams of Germany, Sweden, Czech republic and Norway behind.
Therefore, Russian team stays without medals in men`s relay race for 5-th Olympiad in a row.
|
