The 23-year-old Swede took advantage of her impeccable shooting to finish the race in 29:41.6. Italy’s Dorothea Wierer missed once, but was among the fastest on the track to claim second place (+17.6), while France’s Julia Simon despite two missed shots completed the podium (+22.4) in women’s pursuit at the BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon 2023 Pokljuka.
Oeberg cleaned the first three shootings and despite being a little slower on the track, she secured herself a gap of one penalty loop before the last part of the race. She remained precise in the shooting range and awarded herself with a second Pokljuka win, and her seventh win overall.
“I felt already at the warm up and in the first lap, that today is not a very good day for the legs. I had to work for every meter. I tried to stay cool and do my best on the track. Shooting 20/20 in this position, with bib Nr 1 – this really means a lot to me. It is not just a win, it is that I am where I want to be – to be able to perform multiple days in a row. I want to be a good biathlete not only a good skier. Today I really showed that I am on this level,” said Oeberg.
While Oeberg had her own race, Wierer and Paulina Batovska Fialkova went for the second position. The Italian champion dropped all the targets in the last shooting to finish second. Slovakian biathlete missed one more time and dropped down to the fourth position and at the same time allowed Simon to bounce back after two mistakes at the range to compete for the podium.The Frenchwoman pushed hard to finish third, gaining 8.6-sec gap compared to her closest challenger.
Fialkova took fourth place (+31.0), while Czech’s Marketa Davidova (+34.7) and Oeberg’s compatriot Linn Persson (+36.2) earned their place at the flower ceremony, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.
