2016/2017 FIL Natural Track World Cup – Team Relay – Race 2

From Deutschnofen, ITA

Unlike their artificial track brethren, the natural track team relay was the closest race of the weekend in Deutschnofen.

Coming into the final two teams, Austria had what could be considered a pretty commanding lead over the field, with Germany over ten seconds off the pace. Both Russia and Italy promised to make things interesting, though.

Italy’s trip down was close at every split, with both Greta Pinggera and Alex Gruber’s splits coming in just behind Tina Unterberger and Thomas Kammerlander, leaving the onus on doubles legends Pigneter & Clara.

The Italian doubles team put down a time that could only be matched by the Russians, and it was enough for Italy to edge Austria by .21 overall. Russia finished third, within a second of the leaders, with Germany, Poland, and the Ukraine rounding out the top six.

Results:

Pos Names Nation Bib Women Men Doubles Total
1 Pinggera / Gruber / Pigneter & Clara ITA 7 57.50 55.70 59.23 2:52.43
2 Unterberger / Kammerlander / Schopf & Schopf AUT 6 57.32 55.52 59.80 2:52.64
3 Maleeva / Bukin / Porshnev & Lazarev RUS 8 58.12 55.79 59.23 2:53.14
4 Walch / Wichan / Limmer & Dietz GER 3 58.99 58.21 65.96 3:03.16
5 Plowy / Zasuwa / Sitkowski & Budny POL 2 66.90 64.00 70.07 3:20.97
6 Yarunich / Hirniak / Demchuk & Lenko UKR 1 69.56 79.68 63.47 3:32.71
DNS Bayrak / Guzeloglu / Ercoskun & Dellalbasi TUR 5 DNS
DNS Evans / Reeves / Budd & Unwin GBR 4 DNS