Earlier in the day, the Finnish women took relay gold. The men took bronze as Japan celebrated their victory.
The Finnish men’s team skied to bronze in the 4×7.5 kilometer relay at the Turin Winter Universiade. They skied in the team Topias Kemppi, Markus Kasanen, Eelis Valikainen and Nico Bennert. Finland lost to Japan, who won the competition, by 35 seconds. Switzerland took silver, 20.9 seconds behind the winner.
– The women showed such a great model of how to pull that message, so we tried to do the same after. I have to be satisfied with the medal, Kemppi said, referring to the Finnish women’s relay gold.
– Topias brought the message exactly where it should have been, the two were a little out of touch and we got started with Japan. I watched behind first and on the last lap I tried to hit it as much as I could and got a small gap behind, Kasanen stated.
– The first two sections went pretty much according to the script, but today I wasn’t able to ski exactly what was needed. However, we got a medal, Valikainen said.
– Switzerland and Japan were just better today. After all, we are satisfied, Bennert summed up the team’s message in the Olympic Committee’s press release.
Source: Bulletin of the Olympic Committee