In all races of the women's and men's team sprint both in the semi-finals and later in the finals, the race was very slow over almost the entire distance, which was due to the flat course and the headwind, which hindered the athletes again on the long straight. Thus, the favored Swedes initially held back until they took command on the penultimate double lap. Stina Nilsson, today the starting skier, attacked after the handover and openend a little gap, Ingemarsdotter and Mari Eide (NOR, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) with a slight gap behind her. After the final handover, the trio was together again. In the second lap Maiken Caspersen Falla (NOR, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) attacked on the waves on the start straight, but was not able to escape. The decisive attack was then that of Maja Dahlqvist on the uphill, which should bring her and Stina Nilsson the victory. For second to fourth place there was a tough fight between Falla, Sundling and Caldwell. After photo finish all three were listed at the same time: Sweden ahead of Norway and the USA, who had an athlete with German roots at the start with Julia Kern (USA, Fischer skis and bindings). "We had a good day and very good skis. It's great that the other two finished second, but it's too bad we could not start with three teams," smiled Stina Nilsson.
In the men's final the pace was even slower, so no one really had trouble keeping up until the pace finally got faster. That was the case before the fourth handover and Norway, Sweden and Russia2 led the race. Dietmar Nöckler (ITA, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) also worked his way up to give Federico Pellegrino (ITA) the best possible starting position. Golberg was ahead of Nöckler before the last handover and Pellegrino went into the race with rage in the stomach after yesterday's disqualification and led the field in front of Norway, France and Norway. Eirik Brandsdal was the first to start into the final lap in front of the strong-skiing Dominik Baldauf (AUT, Fischer skis, bindings and boots), who was in a team with Tobias Habenicht (AUT), and Pellegrino. In the last turn, the unlucky Frenchman suffered a broken pole with Jouve and Dominik Baldauf suffered the same fate on the uphill in third position. Sindre Bjørnestad Skar could not be reached by anyone and celebrated his second victory this weekend together with Erik Valnes. "You have to ski from the lead and stay out of trouble," explained Skar, although the team took the lead just before the end of the race. "We did well and took the lead in the last handover, and eveything went well." Second place went to their team-mates Eirik Brandsdal and Pål Golberg, who made the double victory perfect. Russia's Artem Maltsev (RUS, Fischer skis and bindings) and Gleb Retivykh (RUS, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) secured the podium ahead of the Swiss Roman Schaad and Jovian Hediger (both SUI), who also had to replace a broken pole earlier in the race. Andrey Krasnov and Alexander Terentev (both RUS, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) finished in fifth place as Russia2.
