It was back to normal conditions in Oberhof with wind and snow! Making life difficult for everyone.
It didn’t seem that difficult to begin with for Alexander Loginov that is until he imploded at the final shoot. He was clean on the first prone and followed by Sturla Laegreid and Tarjei Boe. He was clean on the second prone too and was building a good lead.
At the first standing he had issues with his rifle and had to hand feed some rounds but he only missed one target. Jacquelin had moved up to second and Erik Lesser third. Quentin Fillon Maillet was also in the hunt now in fourth.
Jacquelin had a fall just after leaving the range and lost some time. He didn’t look so good on his skis today either but he was still in with a chance at the final shoot.
Loginov came in alone but missed three out of five with fast, inaccurate shots. This left the door wide open and Fillon Maillet, Sebastian Samuelsson, Sturla Laegreid and Tarjei Boe all stepped through it. Jacquelin had it slammed in his face with 3 misses.
Fillon Maillet had the lead and no one could catch him. He went on to take his third pursuit win in a row. Samuelsson was second and there was a big fight for third which Tarjei Boe won on the line from Laegreid and Loginov.
Roman Rees was 6th and Florent Claude took 9th for his personal best. The big mover of the day was Maxim Tsvetkov who went from 52nd to 12th with 19/20!
The women’s race was not so exciting at the front. Like Loginov, Marte Olsbu Roeiseland built herself a big lead but unlike him she didn’t blow it! It was a great performance by the yellow bib holder. She missed two targets but it didn’t matter as no one could get near her.
Hanna Sola didn’t start the race so it was down to Julia Simon and Dzinara Alimbekava to chase her down. At the first shoot it was Hanna Oberg and Mari Eder who took over as chasers with clean shooting.
By shoot two it was still Hanna Oberg but now with Kristina Reztsova who were trying to catch Roeiseland. At the first standing Reztsova missed 3 and Oberg hit them all to stay second. Alimbekava was now in third.
That’s the way it stayed to the end with Alimbekava finally getting a podium after a run of 4th place finishes.
Anais Chevalier-Bouchet was 4th, Julia Simon 5th and Lisa Hauser 6th. The biggest mover was Monika Hojnisz-Starega who went from 47th to 13th with 19/20.
Roeiseland keeps the yellow bib for Ruhpolding and Fillon Maillet takes over in yellow for the men.
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