By Inge Scheve, Madshus
After the impressive victory in the World Cup relay in Oberhof (GER) Thursday, January 7, Norway’s head coach Mikael Löfgren announces the same team to represent Norway at the Olympic relay in February. The team will consist of Halvard Hanevold, Tarjei Boe, Emil Hegle Svendsen and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. All skiing on Madshus equipment.
“They all delivered very solid efforts today. This is as good as you can wish for,” Löfgren said to Norwegian TV station NRK, www.nrk.no, and confirmed that these four will race the Olympic relay. “Currently, this is our team for the Olympic relay, yes. If everyone stays healthy and all goes according to plan,” Löfgren says.
Tarjei Boe, 21, debuted on the Norwegian relay team for the Thursday victory, and earned himself a ticket to the Olympics at the same time. He admits that he felt the pressure,and needed four extra shots, but avoided penalty rounds. Overall, Boe is satisfied with the race, and is starting to prepare for the Olympics.
Boe also receives kudos from the king of biathlon, teammate Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. He is impressed with the rookie.
”He is an extremely strong racer and did an outstanding leg for the team today. He stayed clear of penalty rounds, and that is very impressive in a debut,” Ole Einar Bjørndalen says to NRK after the relay.