ANTERSELVA, Italy, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The relays at the Milano Cortina Games have once again proved some hardy old truths about team races in biathlon - you cannot win one on the first leg, but you can certainly lose it, and in the end the medals go to whoever keeps their cool.
Both the men's and women's relays saw France get off to disastrous starts before storming back to win gold, sparing the blushes of the two lead-off racers who dug their team into holes that the others had to bust a gut to pull them out of.
“I was really disappointed after my race, because one penalty loop in the relay is so bad," French biathlete Camille Bened said after a poor shooting performance gave teammate Lou Jeanmonnot a veritable mountain to climb in the second leg.
With all of the teams starting together, things can quickly get messy for the openers.
"It's always like that. The first stretch is always pretty tight, depending on whether someone is very willing to drag the rest along on the first lap and spread the field out, but it's usually tight to the first prone (lying on one's stomach) shoot, that's when the race really starts," Swedish silver medallist Linn Gestblom told Reuters.
"My goal today was to go in and not race cheap on the first lap, and not get into any messy situations, bumping people, skis clashing and poles getting broken, things like that."
The top teams in the women's race all had to endure a tumultuous first leg, yo-yoing in the standings before the French ultimately took over and won thanks to a tremendous third leg from Oceane Michelon.
Twenty-four hours previously, it was her compatriot Emilien Jacquelin that came to the rescue in the men's race.
"Even if, from the start, it is not so great, you have to stay humble, but give your best, then everything is possible," Jacquelin told Reuters after his team's sensational fightback from last place during the first leg to win gold.
However bad it might be to blow the opening leg, being the anchor in a biathlon relay and having to shoot clean with an Olympic medal on the line requires a courage and calm that not many can muster.
Despite being just 22, Norway's Maren Kirkeeide was trusted with the last leg in the opening mixed relay event and came up short on the final shoot to cost her team a podium finish, but she bounced back to win gold and silver in solo races, as well as securing bronze in the women's relay.
"I thought about it (the mixed relay) on the way into the shooting range (in the women's relay), but I just tried to focus on what was happening now and do my best," Kirkeeide told reporters.
"I was just hoping that I would do good races (at the Olympics) and see what that could lead to, but this has been much more than what I expected."
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
