Women's 4 X 5km Relay an Exciting Competition!

From PyeongChang and Reuters, Women's 4 X 5km Medalists:

Norwegian flag [flaginstitute.org]

1.   Norway
Ingvild Flugstad Ostberg/Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen/Ragnhild Haga/Marit Bjoergen           51 minutes 24.3 seconds 

2.   Sweden
Anna Haag/Charlotte Kalla/Ebba Andersson/Stina Nilsson                                     51:26.3                 

3.   Olympic Athlete from Russia
Natalia Nepryaeva/Yulia Belorukova/Anastasia Sedova/Anna Nechaevskaya        52:07.6                

From Olympic News: 

MARIT BJOERGEN SKIED A TRIUMPHANT FINAL LEG TO WRITE HER NAME INTO THE OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES HISTORY BOOKS, DELIVERING GOLD FOR NORWAY IN THE WOMEN'S 4X5KM CROSS COUNTRY RELAY AT THE ALPENSIA CROSS COUNTRY CENTRE ON SATURDAY 17 FEBRUARY. IN DOING SO, SHE JOINED COUNTRYMAN OLE EINAR BJOERNDALEN AS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL WINTER OLYMPIAN OF ALL TIME ON 13 MEDALS.

Sweden took silver and finished two seconds behind, after fantastic legs by Charlotte Kalla, Ebba Andersson and Stina Nilsson, while Olympic Athlete from Russia came third to take the bronze, 43.3 seconds behind the winners.

Norway missed out on a medal four years ago at Sochi 2014 and looked to be struggling again in the first two legs in PyeongChang. However, Ragnhild Haga, who won gold in the women's 10km free, managed to close the gap to 3.4 seconds in the third leg before she handed over to Bjoergen, with Sweden in the lead, and 0.3 seconds ahead of OAR.

The 37-year-old Bjoergen accelerated up the first hill with Nilsson snapping at her heels at the front of the field, but Olympic sprint champion Nilsson had no answer, and Bjoergen rounded the final corner and sped over the line for victory.     MORE