Biathlon-Swedes blame bad wax day for mass start meltdown

ANTERSELVA, ITALY, Feb 21 - Sweden's biathletes have struggled to deliver medals at the Winter Games and on Friday they finally ran out of patience with their waxing team, blaming a bad job on their skis for an embarrassingly poor performance in the men's mass start.

Usually counted among favourites in any biathlon event, the Swedes had a dismal day in the final men's race of the Games, with Sebastian Samuelsson finishing 18th, Martin Ponsiluoma 21st and Jesper Nelin 26th in the 30-man field.

"The skis were the worst I ever had. They were crap," a frustrated Samuelsson brusquely told Swedish TV after the race. "Today the glide from the skis was very bad ... I'm here to fight for medals, but today I go without."

Ski waxing is one of the most important elements of race preparation for biathletes and cross-country skiers, and getting the blend right for the combination of snow, temperature and altitude helps the athletes fly around the course, while getting it wrong makes it akin to skiing through treacle.

Different waxes are used depending on whether the snow is wet and dry, and while many work optimally at temperatures well below freezing, they can get soft and sticky if the temperature rises sharply just before or during the race, ultimately slowing the skiers down.

NORWAY WAX WELL

In contrast to Sweden, Norway's team got their wax works spot on as Johannes Dale Skjevdal, who hit all 20 of his shots for the first time in his career, won gold and compatriot Sturla Holm Laegreid silver. France kept up their habit of providing slick skis to their biathletes at the Games as Quentin Fillon Maillet bagged the bronze.

There was to be no such celebrations for the Swedes, and their team of wax technicians met their racers at the finish line to immediately apologise for their misjudgement.

Though the trio of biathletes was frustrated, they were relatively quick to forgive.

"You just have to laugh at it," Ponsiluoma said wryly.

"When you feel like you don't have the materials, you feel it would have taken 25 hits to beat Dale-Skjevdal today."

Unfortunately for Ponsiluoma there were only 20 targets to shoot at, and though Nelin's 26th place was hardly what he envisioned at the start, at least he missed out on taking part in a bizarre sprint finish to avoid last place.

"This kind of thing (with waxing) happens to all nations at some point and we have a very good waxing team, it's just not going well right now," Nelin said. REUTERS