Johannes Thingnes Bö's margin of victory was 43 seconds ahead of second-placed Emilien Jacquelin, which is a lot for a sprint.
In pure riding time, Bö was also a full 29 seconds faster than national team colleague Johannes Dale.
But when he heard about Samuelsson's tribute, he didn't quite agree.
- It is well executed.
Overall it was very good.
But we've probably seen crueler races over the years, says Bö humbly.
Martin Ponsiluoma was also fast in the track (31 seconds behind Bö in the ride time), but a barrier in standing crushed the Swede's podium chances.
He finished sixth 1.03.7 behind the Norwegian.
Started with two booms
Sebastian Samuelsson got off to the worst possible start when both the first and second shots in the horizontal resulted in misses.
He then took a small retake and fired the other three shots.
- That wasn't good, he could have done better.
Low (boom) too.
If you have two booms lying in a row, you have to do something.
Often you correct yourself and then it's in the middle, says shooting coach Johan Hagström.
Still, there were at least five hits for Samuelsson, which was enough for a 19th place finish.
He thus gave himself better conditions for the start of the chase tomorrow, Saturday, where he goes out 1.42.7 behind Bö.