Like eating pickled herring for breakfast, the Sprint races in Oestersund were ridiculous! Ridiculously good I mean -that’s the biathlon not the herring! 😉
Sweden definitely served up some great entertainment today. Without the wind the shooting was much easier and saw a lot more biathletes shoot clean. In the women’s race Marie Dorin Habert went off like a rocket taking time out of most of her rivals on the tracks. She also had the composure to shoot clean which took her a bit longer than she might have liked on her standing shoot taking plenty of time over her final target.
She won by 11.4 seconds in the end but it could have been different if Kaisa Makarainen hadn’t missed 1 target. She skied faster than Dorin Habert but the miss meant she couldn’t win. In third was reigning champion Gabriela Koukalova whose shooting was good but her skiing wasn’t as good as the first two.
Fourth place went to Laura Dahlmeier who also missed 1 target which meant she couldn’t challenge for first either. Another impressive display from Lisa Hauser saw her finish fifth and Lena Haecki also had a great race in 12th. Sweden has another two ladies in the Top 25, with Anna Magnusson in 14th and Emma Nilsson, in 24th to please the home crowd.
The home crowd were even more pleased in the Men’s Sprint when Freddie Lindstroem finally got back on the podium after 3 years! He shot clean to finish in second but unfortunately for him so did Martin Fourcade and he won the race by a ridiculous 41.5 seconds! Third place went to Arnd Peiffer who also shot clean.
Teammate Benedick Doll was fourth with one miss and Julian Eberhard was fifth with two misses just 46 seconds behind Fourcade. Simon Desthieux was 8th and Simon Fourcade 10th making it a good day for the French team. Fourcade’s main rivals all finished outside the Top 20 except for Svendsen who was 14th making it an even better day for the French!
There was however another ridiculous result this time from Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson making his World Cup debut aged 19. He shot clean and came 19th just 1 minute and 9 seconds behind Fourcade! I told you to watch out for him!
So tomorrow is the final day in Oestersund and whatever you do, DO NOT miss the Women’s Pursuit! Marie, Kaisa, Gabi and Laura starting within 25 seconds of each other!! It has the makings of another ridiculous race! There is the men’s race too but Martin Fourcade will probably win again! Has he won the World Cup already?
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