Cross-country skiing Men's 4x7.5km Relay - 28th Winter Universiade 2017, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Almaty - Russian athletes won men’s relay in cross-country skiing February 6. Men’s cross-country skiing. 4х7,5km relay: Gold: Russia (Egor Berezin, Valeriy Gontar, Kirill Vichuzhanin, Dmitriy Rostovtsev) – 1:12:49.3 Silver: Sergey Malyshev, Vitaliy Pukhkalo, Rinat Mukhin, Olzhas Klimin (Kazakhstan) – 1:12:51.1 Bronze: Jakub Antos, Miroslav Rypl, Jakub Psenicka, Jakub Graef (Czech Republic) – 1:14:51.8 Russian and Kazakhstani athletes were considered to be the probable leaders of the relay race in cross-country skiing. They met the expectations from the beginning of the race. By the end of the second leg, Russia and Kazakhstan led the race by 25 seconds. Vichuzhanin and Mukhin were number three in their respective teams. They managed to help their team increase the lead to 1 minute 14 seconds. On the last lap, Olzhas Klimin and Dmitriy Rostovtsev determined the results of the race. Both of them have already won medals at this year’s Universiade. Dmitriy took the silver in individual race classic and won the gold in pursuit. Olzhas was one of the medalist of mixed relay. In today’s race, Olzhas and Dmitriy constantly challenged each other. “The most difficult moment was on the third lap when I tried to outrun the Kazakhstani competitor. I couldn’t finish the spurt and my head became dizzy. So I decided to stay behind Olzhas for a while and prepare for the final moments,” said Dmitriy. On the final turn before the last lap, Rostovtsev managed to overtake Klimin and rushed forward. Klimin tried to fight back but did not succeed. “I took the risk before the finish but it was not worth it. I lost tactically. It was better to save my strength until the final moments. Stuff happens, you know. It was my first race where I took part in the fourth stage. My competitors were strong enough and it is not shameful to have lost them,” said Olzhas. Russia, thus, took the gold. Kazakhstan team was second. In a competition for the third place, the fight was fierce. Japanese athletes, who were third throughout the race, could not hold their positions. Jacub Graef from the Czech Republic was fast enough to win back the 42 seconds. 400 meters before the finish, he increased the pace and overtook the competitors. Thus, he secured the bronze medal for his team. Stay tuned with FISU and follow us on our different social platforms! Subscribe to our Youtube Channel : ‪http://www.youtube.com/subscribe_widget?p=fisutv‬ Follow us on: Facebook: ‪https://www.facebook.co/FISU.InternationalUniversitySport ‬Twitter: ‪https://twitter.com/FISUnetwork ‬flicker: ‪http://www.flickr.com/people/fisu_network/‬ Visit the official website of the FISU Movement at http://www.fisu.net for all information on University Games, Sports and Athletes, National FISU Committees and FISU News.