Christiansen completes Norway’s Kontiolahti relay comeback

Norway won the men’s four-by-seven-and-a-half-kilometre relay in Kontiolahti in 1:13:30.7, securing the season trophy for the eighth time in nine years. Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen completed the comeback alongside Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, Johan-Olav Botn and Sturla Holm Laegreid, with seven spare rounds across the team.

France led by forty seconds at the final exchange, but Quentin Fillon Maillet needed three prone spares. Christiansen reduced the gap to six seconds, then cleaned standing as his rival required two further rounds, leaving Norway ahead for the final loop.

France finished second, 19.1 seconds behind. Sebastian Samuelsson lifted Sweden from eighth at the last exchange to third, while fourth-placed Finland recorded its best World Cup relay finish in twenty-four years.