The first race of the Sunday programme at the BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon Pokljuka 2025 brought a victory for Switzerland. Aita Gasparin and Nicklas Hartweg were the best in the single mixed relay. The Slovenian representatives, Lena Repinc and Jakov Fak, who bid farewell to the home fans after the race, finished in 8th place.
The last competition day of the BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon Pokljuka 2025 started with the single mixed relay, where shooting played an extremely important role in the final outcome. This proved to be crucial for the Slovenian team as the race did not start as planned. Young representative Lena Repinc had to correct three shots before hitting all ten targets, and she handed over to Jakov Fak in 11th place.
Thursday’s winner Jakov Fak was again fast on the skis and very accurate at the shooting range. Without any corrections, he gained six places, but Lena Repinc was not in good shooting form today, and her four corrections meant a drop to 12th place. Jakov Fak went all in in the final leg but had to correct three times on the last shooting. In the end, this meant 8th place.
“The first three places were far away, but I took a risk and wanted to gain a few places. It was going well until the last two shots, then I missed and went into the final lap in 10th. I’m really happy that they prepared a fast pair of skis, and I gained two more places. This year, Lena and I were third in three races, and we wanted to improve on that, but it just didn’t happen,” said Fak after the race.
“I’m sorry I ruined a good result for us. Jakov had a perfect race, but I’m disappointed with my performance, and I hope I didn’t disappoint Jakov too much. This is not what I train for. Both of us wanted to improve our sixth-place finish,” said Lena Repinc after the race. Fak reassured her: “Lena is so young that she doesn’t remember my performances at the beginning. This is all part of biathlon, and I believe Lena will have a good and successful career.”
After the first quarter of the race, the Swiss team of Aita Gasparin and Nicklas Hartweg, and the Swedish team of Johanna Skottheim and Jesper Nelin, were competing for the top spot, with Germany, Austria, France, and Finland still in the race.
In the final leg, the Swiss team performed best and, after a calm prone shooting stage, left the Swedes behind. After shooting without any mistakes, Germany’s Justus Strelow climbed to second place, followed by Sweden’s Nelin, France’s Emilien Jacquelin, and Finland’s Tero Seppälä. However, the German couldn’t hold on, as he was overtaken by the Swede, Finn, Frenchman, and American by the finish line.
On the podium were the representatives of Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland.
At 14:50, the mixed relay will take place, with Slovenia represented by Polona Klemenčič, Anamarija Lampič, Anton Vidmar, and Lovro Planko.
