We are back in Oberhof! Or are we? Snowy,calm conditions – are you sure we are in Oberhof? Yes we are and we should enjoy winter now that it has arrived!
The first race after the Christmas break was the women’s sprint and I am sure Lisa Vittozzi didn’t mind her late gift. She won comfortably on Thursday shooting clean and leading the field by five seconds to take her first ever win on the World Cup. It has been on the cards for a while now and she deserves to make it on to the top step of the podium.
Second place went to Anais Chevalier following up her third place in the final race of 2018 the mass start in Nove Mesto. She also shot clean and managed to stay ten seconds clear of the third place finisher Hanna Oberg. She also shot clean as did Iryna Kryuko in 5th and Vita Semerenko in 6th. It was only 4th placed Marte Olsbu Roeiseland who spoiled the top six all shooting clean by missing 1 target.
The USA had a great day with Susan Dunklee in 10th and Clare Egan in 13th. Dzinara Alimbekava got her personal best finish in 25th as did Susanna Meinen in 39th, Tuuli Tomingas in 42nd and Karoline Knotten in 50th. It wasn’t the best day for our leaders with Paulina Fialkova in 21st, Dorothea Wierer in 24th and Kaisa Makarainen in 44th.
Oberhof was back to normal on Friday for the men’s sprint with some fog and wind! We knew it wouldn’t last! From last to first (great segue!) – it was a day of firsts for the guys. Alexander Loginov won the race to get his first ever World Cup win and Sebastian Samuelsson was third for his first World Cup podium. I think Johannes has been on the podium before though! 😉
Loginov shot clean to win by 25 seconds. A costly miss in the stand put Boe in second and Samuelsson also hit 10/10 in third. Benni Doll was 4th, Arnd Peiffer 5th and Julian Eberhard 6th all hitting 9/10.
Austria’s Felix Leitner got his personal best result in 12th shooting clean as did Anton Smolski in 26th and Simon Bartko in 50th.
Martin Fourcade missed 1 shot to finish 7th and will start 22 seconds behind Johannes Boe in the pursuit. That should be fun! 😉
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