The first biathlon weekend in the new year has opened the women, with the sprint on Thursday.
Bei Sonnenschein und fast perfekten Bedingungen am Schießstand, entschied die Schwedin Elvira Oeberg das Rennen für sich. Ihr gelangen zwei fehlerfreies Schießeinlagen und setzte sich mit knapp 7 Sekunden vor die Französin Julia Simon, welche ebenfalls fehlerfrei blieb. Dies saubere Schießen gelang auch der Italienerin Dorothea Wierer. Sie landete am Ende mit 19 Sekunden Rückstand auf Rang 3.
Am Folgetag startete das Männerfeld mit Topfavorit Johannes Thingnes Boe in das Sprintrennen. Boe zeigte schon im Dezember mit überragend starken Leistungen auf und lässt kaum Raum für die Konkurrenten. Dass er sich aber gleich so stark vor das Feld setzt war nicht zu erwarten. Boe gewann mit einem Schießfehler und einem sagenhaften Vorsprung von knapp 50 Sekunden. Johannes konnte seinen Erfolg noch mehr feiern, gelang seinem Bruder Tarjei Boe ebenfalls eine super Leistung. Tarjei schoss 0 Fehler und landete hinter seinem jüngeren Bruder. Das Podest wurde von Landsmann Sturla Holm Laegreid abgerundet, so sorgte er für einen norwegischen Dreifacherfolg!
On Saturday, both pursuit races were on the schedule at Pokljuka. The women started the day with the distances from the sprint into the pursuit. Elvira Oeberg was accurate, hit all targets and showed herself strong in the track as so often, the young Swede defended her lead and could celebrate the finish with 17 seconds ahead of the Italian Dorothea Wierer. Julia Simon made two mistakes and finished just behind Dorothea Wierer.
In the men's race, the roles were clearly distributed from the beginning. Johannes Boe ran his own race, didn't give the competition a chance and extended his lead to more than 1 minute until the finish. Boe had two misses at the shooting range but showed a strong running form as so often and won ahead of the Frenchman and last year's high-flyer Quentin Fillon Maillet. On rank Tarjei Boe finished his race. The Norwegian team showed in the two races, united strong. Thus, the team of Siegfried Mazet managed to place all 6 athletes among the best 8 of the chase start.
On Sunday the nations started in a mixed line-up. In the morning the Single - Mixed - Relay was on the program. Here, one woman and one man of each nation start. The combination of short, fast laps and the shooting, which is mostly characterized by fast shooting times, succeeded best for the Norwegian team around Ingrid Tandrevold and Vetle Christiansen. They were able to clearly win the relay and in the end were a whole 40 seconds ahead of the French team. Here Lou Jeanmonnot and Antonin Guigonnat were at the start. In a pleasant surprise, the young Swiss, Amy Baserga and Niklas Hartweg, managed to finish the race in third place.
A few hours later, the mixed teams went on the hunt. There are always two women and two men per nation at the start. After a turbulent race, characterized by many shooting errors at the stand and several penalty laps, it was the French who crossed the finish line first. Here ran, Fabien Claude, Quentin Fillon, Anais Chevalier and Julia Simon. Second place went to the Italians, ahead of the Swedish relay team.
Now the teams are on their way to the next World Cup location. This will take place in Chiemgau, Ruhpolding.
Pictures K.Voigt Photography