After a free Friday, which brought heavy precipitation and made the Triglav National Park and the biathlon stadium in the heart of the Julian Alps look like a fairytale, the Pokljuka leg of the BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon continues on Saturday. On the schedule are both mass start races, the Formula 1 event for the elite biathletes.
The women’s race, featuring Slovenia’s winter heroine Anamarija Lampič, will start at 13:35, while the men’s 15 km race, with Thursday’s Slovenian hero Jakov Fak, will begin at 15:45.
Thirty-seven-year-old Fak, aware that he has raised expectations among the public, said ahead of Saturday’s race: “I believe that many will expect me to win again on Saturday. It’s always like that – if you win on Thursday and finish second on Saturday, it’s already seen as a disappointment. But you have to understand that there are so many guys here who want to win, and I am one of them, so it’s always tense and difficult. Everything has to come together, and sometimes there are days when you just can’t be up there.”
There are many favorites in the mass start race. Special attention will undoubtedly be on those who performed best in Thursday’s short individual races, especially since the mass start race is the same distance with the same number of shooting stages. However, unlike Thursday, each missed shot will now have to be compensated with a penalty loop.
The women’s race was won by France’s Julia Simon, ahead of Sweden’s Hanna Öberg and Germany’s Franziska Preuss. Preuss remains in the spotlight, as she increased her lead over France’s Lou Jeanmonnot in the overall World Cup standings. Preuss now holds a 60-point advantage, while Jeanmonnot could take small consolation in securing the individual race discipline Small Crystal Globe.
To the delight of Slovenian fans, the men’s race was then won by the evergreen Jakov Fak, who celebrated his first individual World Cup victory in ten years. He defeated Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid by over half a minute and Sweden’s Martin Ponsiluoma by 44 seconds.
With this result, Laegreid overtook his compatriot and dominant biathlete of recent years, Johannes Thingnes Bø, to lead the overall World Cup standings by 39 points. Laegreid also secured the title in the individual race rankings, where Fak finished second after his victory on Thursday.
On Saturday, Laegreid will further extend his lead, as Bø, who was already feeling unwell on Thursday, has withdrawn from the remaining races in Pokljuka due to illness and fever. Instead, he will focus on preparing for the final stage of the biathlon season in Oslo, where he will conclude his illustrious career and secure his place in biathlon history as one of the greatest of all time.
