Biathlon : Sweden sixteenth after Anna Magnusson’s first relay
The women’s relay at the Biathlon World Cup inOberhof (Germany) turned into a nightmare for Sweden right from the start. Anna Magnusson, who was in charge of starting the race, saw the strap on her rifle detach during the first prone shot, causing the weapon to fall to the mat. “Oh, oh, she’s lost. She wants the spare rifle”, said Bjoern Ferry, consultant for Swedish television SVT.
“I wasn’t in the best of conditions. I was stressed and very tired, lying there. At first, I thought I could pull without the strap, but it was impossible. I thought about asking for help, but I had the impression that nobody was going to come,” she told SVT and was quoted in Sportbladet.
In the confusion, the Swede found a makeshift solution, passing the wire to stabilise the weapon. ” And then, in the end, it worked out fine,” she recalls with hindsight.
From a sporting point of view, the consequences were immediate. Despite this sequence, the Scandinavian first limited the damage by using just one extra cartridge in the prone shot. But when she stood up, she used three pickaxe bullets, penalised by the wind and her already heavy legs.
Sweden emerged from the first stint a long way off the leaders, in sixteenth place, 1 minute 38 seconds behind France. “On the second lap, I felt my legs were really stiff. It was difficult after that. With stiff legs and quite a bit of wind, it was hard to stand up,” explained the Swede. The Swedish team finally finished in fifth place, with two penalty laps and sixteen picks, more than 2 min 40 behind the French team.
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