Russian ski queens savor more Beijing success
Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) duo Yulia Stupak and Natalia Nepryaeva collected another Beijing medal with a third-place finish in Wednesday’s women’s classic team sprint.
Following gold medal success in the women’s 4 x 5km cross-country relay, Stupak and Nepryaeva combined again, this time winning bronze behind their German and Swedish rivals Victoria Carl and Jonna Sundling’s of Sweden.
Germany’s Victoria Carl, who had replaced Katherine Sauerbrey before the event, produced a brilliant burst on the home stretch to celebrate a stunning victory as the team finished the 6 x 1.5km race in a time of 22:09.85.
The German duo of Carl and Katharina Hennig beat Swedish world champions Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist, who settled for silver after clocking 22:10.02.
Stupak and Nepryaeva finished third, 0.71 seconds behind the winners.
Nepryaeva, 26, has grabbed a full set of Olympic medals in Beijing, adding the bronze medal to her silver in the women’s skiathlon and gold in women’s 4 x 5km relay.
Stupak, 27, bagged her second award in Beijing, also being a part of the gold-medal-winning relay team on Saturday.
