Johannes Thingnes Boe kept his supremacy in the 10 km races this season. He finished in 23:55.9 to secure his fourth consecutive win in this distance. His older brother Tarjei took the advantage of his clean shooting, claiming second position (+48.1), while their compatriot Sturla Holm Lagreid (+55.6), who missed once, completed the podium in men’s sprint at the BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon 2023 Pokljuka.
The 29-year-old Norwegian started the race strong. He was the fastest to arrive at the first shooting but he took one penalty in prone. His powerful skiing and solid standing shooting brought him the final triumph. “It was great! I have to say that we had fantastic skis. Well, we, Norwegians always have them, but today, they were from another planet. I just flew around the track. The shooting was fast and efficient and I managed to win. For tomorrow, I have a big gap and I will just try to do a double sprint and I hope it will be good.”
T. Boe’s impeccable shooting together with eight course time secured him second place. On the other hand, the third-placed Lagreid missed once – that was only his second missed shoot in prone this season. He then cleaned standing and pushed hard on the skis to claim third place.
Germany’s Benedikt Doll with one penalty finished as fourth (+1:03.3). Czech Michal Krcmar, who was the first biathlete to clean the shooting, finished fifth (+1:03.9) and Italy’s Tommaso Giacomel, who had to take two penalty loops was sixth (+1:09.5).
Home hero Jakov Fak missed the first prone shot, later he dropped all the targets and did his best in skiing to finish in 12th place. He was the best Slovenian in the race. Miha Dovžan, Alex Cisar, and Anton Vidmar will be the remaining three home matadors to start in tomorrow’s pursuit.