Boe's seven medals, Simon's spurt in the pursuit and Samuelsson's tenacity: what do you remember about the Biathlon World Championships in Oberhof

Almost invincible Byo

While the Russian athletes were summing up the results of the Russian Cup in Tchaikovsky, the Biathlon World Championship was held in Oberhof.

Johannes Boe was considered the main favorite of the men's tournament, who won 11 out of 14 personal races this season at the World Cup stages. The main intrigue was whether the Norwegian would be able to set a world record and win all seven gold medals.

At first, everything went well for the athlete.

The team also helped: the victory in the mixed relay, which opened the tournament, went to the Norwegian team largely thanks to Sturla Legrade.

The biathlete at his stage reduced a decent gap of 49 seconds from the Italians, created by the girls - Ingrid Tandrevold and Marte Reuseland.

Boe was not perfect, he made four misses on two firing lines.

However, no one can compete with an athlete on the track on an equal footing if he is in good condition.

As a result, Johannes finished first quite easily and brought himself the first gold of the World Championship.

The relay was not without incidents.

Quentin Fillon Maillet almost deprived his team of a bronze medal.

He, like Eduard Latypov last season, mixed up the target and went not to the finish line, but to a new lap.

Fortunately for the French, the athlete caught himself in time, yet he became the third, after the Italian Tommaso Giacomel.

Distinguished with a minus sign and the Swede Sebastian Samuelsson.

After shooting from a prone position, he went to three penalties and deprived his team of chances for a medal.

In the sprint, Be was frankly lucky.

Fog descended on Oberhof, and it was very difficult for the athletes to shoot.

However, on the prone, the Norwegian miraculously did not close only one target, but worked cleanly on the stand and after that showed phenomenal speed, breaking away from his rivals on the last lap.

The race once again demonstrated the dominance of the Norwegians in the men's biathlon, with Tarja Boe in second place and Legrade in third.

"Pursuit" has completely turned into a one-man theater.

Johannes this time was great not only on the track, but also on the shooting range.

He did not make a single mistake, so he could afford a winning gesture already at the shooting range.

And at the finish line, the Norwegian knelt down and pointed his finger towards the audience.

Similarly, in 2021, striker Erling Haaland, speaking for Borussia Dortmund, celebrated a goal against Wolfsburg.

The real battle in the pursuit unfolded for third place.

On the last straight line, Samuelsson snatched bronze from Bö Sr.

And even shed a tear after winning the award.

However, the Swede's medal caused jokes in the camp of the Norwegians.

As Tarja noted, Sebastian was lucky that on the lap they broke away from Vetle Christiansen, a much stronger finisher.

Came under a hot hand and Peter Nortug.

It turned out that before the World Cup, Samuelsson received a couple of instructions from the famous skier.

For this, the Norwegians were going to be "convicted of high treason and severely punished."

But, of course, in jest.

The individual race once again demonstrated Boe's dominance over the other rivals.

Even with two misses, he overtook his pursuers for a minute, who missed once.

And he consolidated the result in a single-mixed pair with Røiseland.

Still, Johannes created a little intrigue in the relay by missing on the second prone.

But the lag of 11 seconds from the Austrian David Komats for the athlete turned out to be nothing.

As a result, Norway celebrates a landslide victory, thanks to which Boe entered the history of the world championships.

He became the first biathlete to win five gold medals in one tournament.

Alas, the athlete could not improve this result.

The reason was the weather.

And if in the sprint the fog helped the biathlete, rather, the wind during the men's relay mixed all the cards.

Christiansen, both on the prone and on the stand, fell into a rush.

He worked without penalty laps, but he took aim for so long that as a result, already at the first stage, a minute lag behind the leaders formed, which remained until the very end of the race.

Boe tried to rectify the situation, but spent all eight rounds on the prone, and after an ideal stance, he could no longer catch up with Fillon Maillet and finished second.

Unexpectedly for Be fans, the mass start ended.

The Norwegian did not work perfectly on the firing lines: he made three misses, one of which fell on the last target.

However, he was only six seconds behind Samuelsson and Martin Ponsiluoma for the lap.

It seemed that the whole struggle for victory was still ahead.

But Johannes at some point gave up the chase and calmly, almost on foot, came to the stadium third.

“I am incredibly happy with the World Cup.

Today was on the way to gold, but missed the last shot.

The curtain fell when the Swedes stormed the Birkssteig (one of the climbs on the Oberhof track - RT ), ”VG quotes the words of the younger Boe.

The first in the mass start eventually became Samuelsson.

He won his first gold medal at the world championships.

And in general, he can bring the tournament to his asset.

In addition to the first place, he also has three bronze medals.

Unsuccessfully, the biathlete performed only in mixed races; in single-mixed, he also went to the penalty loop.

In the shadow of Boe Jr. was another representative of the Norwegian national team - Legrade.

The athlete won five medals in six races: gold, three silver and bronze.

The biathlete could not get on the podium only in the mass start, remaining fourth.

Gorgeous Oeberg

In the women's part of the World Cup, everything was much more interesting, since there is no such dominance of the Norwegians as in men.

Hanna Oeberg showed a high result in Oberhof.

The Swede won two individual races - individual and mass start, and also took bronze in the women's relay and silver in the sprint.

There could have been two more awards if Samuelsson had taken a more responsible approach to mixed competitions.

However, even four medals is a biathlete's personal record.

Røiseland has one less award.

But unlike the Swede, she won gold only in relay races.

And in the pursuit she became the third.

However, for statistics, it does not matter in which race the first place was won, so Marte became the most titled biathlete in the history of the world championships.

The same number of times the German Denise Hermann, who won the sprint at the tournament for the first time in her career, rose to the podium in Oberhof.

In pursuit, the miracle was created by the Frenchwoman Julie Simon.

She started 10th in the race but ended up catching up with the leaders and even with one missed target in the last standing she finished first as her rival Herrmann faltered and made a mistake twice.

By the way, this is not the first time Simon has made such a leap.

At the beginning of the season, she sensationally won the pursuit at the World Cup in Kontiolahti, starting from 16th place.

It was the Frenchwoman who approached the World Cup as a favorite, but managed to win only one gold.

In all other races, shooting let her down.

Even in the mass start, where Julia took bronze, the athlete made three misses.

Another sensation occurred in the women's relay.

It was unexpectedly won by the Italian team, which has never in history risen above third place in the world championships.

Moreover, the race was not easy for the girls.

On the second stage, before the first shooting, Dorothea Wierer caught on the fence of the track and fell, but she lost little time and was able to work perfectly on the firing lines, bringing her team to the lead.

However, everything was decided by excellent shooting at the last stage of Lisa Vittozzi, who turned out to be more accurate than Hermann.

It is noteworthy that the Italian relay team used only two extra rounds: an incredible result, given the difficult weather conditions that day.

Vittozzi, by the way, at the tournament showed herself as a real team fighter.

She also won medals in the single-mixed and mixed relay.

The Italian could also take personal gold - in the individual race, but made an offensive mistake at the fourth firing line and in the end was content with only bronze.