Golden girls 2009 seems to be the year of relay success! World Champs in Hungary finished last Sunday, and just like last year I could put a beautiful and heavy gold medal in my bag. Winning the WOC relay together with Betty Ann and Marianne was of course the big highlight! Before the relay, I considered 6 teams were capable of taking the gold medal. Two out of the three previous years we have in fact ended up as being number 6, even with a very strong team… The battle for relay medals is always a heavy one, and that’s why it was SO MUCH FUN for Betty Ann and me to meet Marianne behind the finish line – we were World Champions! Photo: Jo A. Lænn A lot of words have already been written about the relay – and I have collected some links below. Let me also mention that I am proud of what happened during the men’s relay – as Anders, Thierry and Michal quit their golden battle, in order to help an injured Martin. I guess that the drama will be some sort of glue between those guys in the future. Emotionally strong moments bring people together! And the way they acted can surely inspire us to do the right thing in similar situations in the future. So far I haven’t mentioned my two individual WOC finals, sprint (number 7) and long (number 6). I was satisfied with the long one, only making some small mistakes. The sprint was also ok, but a bad routechoice cost me a medal, that was 10 seconds away. My physical shape was pretty good all week, but I must admit that my legs were surely faster last year. Anyway, the curve has pointed a lot upwards the past month, and hopefully I can give the other girls a fight in the World Cup Finals in Zürich in one month! Last year I had plenty of individual victories, but there were some disappointing relays. This year I can cross out both “Tiomila” and “WOC relay”. And perhaps there is more to come… Norwegian Champs and 25-manna are still waiting for us, and I know that Coolchicks and the rest of Halden SK are hungry and well prepared! VG Aftenposten Dagbladet NRK Fevennen - funny picture! NOF - more pictures (25.08.09 19:57)