Crazy relay race: Latvia wins ahead of USA and Romania

Altenberg (FIL/04. Feb. 2024) This podium is a rarity: Latvia ahead of Team USA and Romania. The weather conditions at the EBERSPAECHER Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW made this result possible. For the Latvian team, which started with Elina Vitola, Martins Bots/Roberts Plume, Kristers Aparjods and Anda Upite/Kitija Bogdanova, it was the sixth victory in the 80th relay race in the history of the World Cup. The six athletes needed 3:14.445 minutes. "My team presented itself very well," said Latvia's head coach Zintis Saicans proudly, "we had a great weekend with many podium places. Three in four competitions. Only Martins Bots and Roberts Plume did not make it onto the podium, finishing fourth in the doubles. It was Kristers Aparjods, third in the men's event, who caused a small moment of excitement when he hit the touchpad with great difficulty while drifting sideways.

Emily Sweeney, Dana Kellogg/Frank Ike, Tucker West and Chevonne Forgan/Sophia Kirkby were 1.003 seconds slower than the Latvians in the ice track at Kohlgrund. The big surprise was the Romanian team in third place (Ioana-Corina Buzatoiu, Tudor-Stefan Handaric/Sebastian Motzca, Valentin Cretu and Raluca Stramatuaru/Mihaela Manolescu/1.856 seconds back).

Start number one helped them. "This is such a great success for Romania," said Cretu, beaming with joy, "of course the weather helped us, we can be realistic about that. Nevertheless, it is such a wonderful feeling to stand on the podium with the team. And then he and his team-mates started dancing and celebrating with the US team.

The teams from Austria (+2.279), Germany (+2.350) and Italy (+2.482), who were used to winning, were left behind. They had no chance with their late start numbers on the slower ice.