The 29-year-old Norwegian’s superb performance placed him on the podium for the 100th time in World Cup races. Johannes Thingnes Boe finished men’s 12.5 km pursuit in 31:43.2. France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet (+1:04.9) returned to the podium with second place and the older of the Boe brothers, Tarjei (+1:06.6) claimed third position.
JT Boe started the race already with a 43-sec gap. Moreover, he missed only one target in prone and one in standing shooting, and together with his powerful skiing he calmly secured his second win in Pokljuka this weekend. He even increased his gap from Friday’s sprint. “I am really satisfied with my performance. I don’t think it was easy in the prone shootings. After first missed shot, I felt good, being still in the lead, I managed to keep the gap behind me. I tried to ski fast and I still had the power for the standing shootings as well. I missed the first one, but I felt good control all in all. Even my last bullet was also on the edge. That is the sport – one in and one out. After the last shot I forgot to celebrate it on the mat; that is why I had to do it 50 meters after. I was too focused on each shot,” he commented on the race.
Sturla Holm Laegreid missed two times in the first standing stage, allowing Fillon Maillet to advance to the second position. The Frenchmen pushed strong and despite one mistake in the shooting range seized the opportunity for his first individual podium this season, finishing second. Third Norway’s sprint medalist, Tarjei Boe took only one penalty loop to finish third.
It was two penalty loops that anchored Holm Laegreid (1:17.8) to fourth place. The same goes for Tommaso Giacomel (+1:31.0) and Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen (+1:48.9) finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.
All four of Slovenia’s biathletes collected new points, with Jakov Fak finishing as 17th, Miha Dovžan in 26th, Alex Cisar in 34th and Anton Vidmar in 39th place.
