France’s Martin Fourcade claimed the victory in the Men’s 20K despite starting with bib number 87. Johannes Kuehn of Germany finished second (+ 4.2) and Austria’s Simon Eder third (+ 19.7). Home favourite Jakov Fak was fourth, Germany’s Simon Schempp finished fifth and Ukraine’s Sergey Semenov completed the first six.
After organizers had to postpone the race for one day due to a heavy fog, the Thursday morning awarded the competitors with sun and equal conditions, promising an exciting race. Kuehn, who was one of the first ones on the track took advantage of good conditions and delivered a great performance, dropped all the targets and took the lead.
Austria’s veteran Eder was precise at shooting like always but was a bit slower at skiing and he crossed the finish line 15.5 seconds back comparing to the young German.
The race was not over yet, since Fourcade was still on the track. He shot clean and after the last shooting stage moved to the top of the chart and proved that he is still one of the best biathletes. After the match he commented about his tactics: “We expected snow last night, that’s why I took the late start, but we were wrong. As soon as I came to the stadium I knew that my only option was to succeed at the shooting range and I’m happy I did.”
The silver Kuehn was really happy with his first career podium: “It is a surprise to be on the podium. I knew that my skiing was ok, but today it was the shooting range that was decisive and I managed to clean it. I am satisfied with my race and I couldn’t have done it better.”
Simon Eder, who already claimed silver at Single Mixed Relay, enjoyed after another podium: “A podium makes it a little bit easier, but today everybody started from zero. It’s true that I shoot a bit slower than in the previous races, but the most important is the outcome and today it worked out.”
