Nove Mesto was very good to biathlete23! Martin Fourcade was 5th missing three and with his skiing still below his usual standard it was the best he could do. Christiansen cleared again to stay in the lead but now he was followed by the German pair Kuehn and Peiffer. Italy as usual started well with Lisa Vittozzi on the first leg shooting clean and taking the lead. The bronze medal was more of a surprise with Justine Braisaz finishing third. He coped best in the conditions to give Martin Ponsiluoma a 10 second lead. Norway’s men won the battle in the sprints and the French men won the battle in the individual! Johannes Boe kicked it off with a win in the sprint! Dahlmeier went on the penalty loop but still came out in the lead after the others also had issues having to shoot carefully. All rights reserved. That brings the medal collection to Olympic gold (Laura Dahlmeier Sprint 2018), World Championship gold (Martin Fourcade Individual 2016) and now Para World Champion. It was a risky tactic for the Frenchman but it paid off in style when Boe missed a shot and he cleaned to take a decisive lead. Third went to Italy, with the usual suspects, Vittozzi, Wierer, Windisch and Hofer despite a penalty loop. There was more success this season for biathlete23 in para-biathlon. It’s amazing! Fourcade still has the yellow bib for the lead in the overall but Boe is closing the gap! Finally in the mass starts Lena Haecki was 30th and Tomas Krupcik 20th.
Tiril Eckhoff had a super leg moving Norway into second and Preuss brought Germany into it handing over in third. With a team of Lars Helge Birkeland, Vetle Christiansen, Tarjei Boe and Johannes Boe they got their fifth win in a row here. However after using 2 spares on the stand she left the range with a 26 second lead which incredibly Herrmann made up and passed her to put Germany in the lead with Dahlmeier on the last leg. . She won 5 races with the women a mixed relay and reached another podiums. In the individual Ivona Fialkova was 70th but Tero Seppala was 31st. Hopefully normal service will be resumed after Christmas! Soldier Hollow hosted round 8 and was a good one for bib23. The silver medal went to Lisa Vittozzi who has broken the curse of changing ski suit from green to blue! I hope he hasn’t got what Martin had last season! It was the Mixed Relay where we got a surprise. twitter_share. It was a perfect race hitting all 20 targets. On Sunday it was the women’s turn to race and it was another great relay.
She cleaned the prone and used 1 spare in the stand to give Italy a 15 second lead at the first exchange. Justine Braisaz was 4th, Dorothea Wierer 5th and Monika Hojnisz Starega 6th. The third shoot was crucial with the leading group all missing and Dahlmeier cleaning to take the lead. Search for any athletes in the Athlete Compare Tool using the first three letters of their surname. Finland also had a great race with Eder(formerly Laukkanen) and Makarainen putting them in the lead but the men, Seppala and Hiidensalo, couldn’t hold it and eventually finished 5th which is still a great result. Vanessa Hinz and Anais Chevalier did well as did Estonia’s Regina Oja. Her form hasn’t been great this season but she timed it right today. Although she would have won the race had she hit all 20 targets!!!
At the first prone Dahlmeier need 2 spares but left the range before Sanfilippo got her first shot away. Benjamin Weger had an excellent race in 5th and Tarjei Boe was 6th. Next came Franziska Preuss and Lena Haecki. Braisaz loves the outdoors; is an avid hiker, mountain biker and is active in environmental issues. He remained calm and when he cleaned the final stand no one could stop him. Ukraine took third. However out on the tracks it was Johannes Boe who was controlling the pace and getting back to the lead. He was neck and neck with Benedikt Doll but took the lead after the prone. In the end Doll held them all off to finish second.
The evil bib24 won 2 gold medals so that really ruined the whole thing! Susan Dunklee was 34th in the sprint and Simon Schempp was 25th.
If you are wondering what happened to Quentin Fillon Maillet and Martin Fourcade they finished 8th and 14th respectively after problems with the way their skis were waxed in the tricky conditions. One spare was the difference between second and third with 2 spares needed by Norway and 3 by Germany on the last standing. I will have my revenge bib24 just you wait!!! Man the Swedes must really love a relay as they are getting 4 this week! Tarjei handed over an 11 second lead to his brother Johannes and it was all he needed to take the win for Norway.
Luckily for him his skiing is so good he had a cushion each time and was always out front.