Biathlon overall World Cup winner Sturla Holm Laegreid suffered a surprisingly significant defeat at the Norwegian season opener in Geilo. The victory in the sprint went to one of his compatriots.
Sturla Holm Laegreid fell short of expectations at the eagerly anticipated start of the season in Geilo, Norway. The winner of last winter’s overall biathlon World Cup only finished the sprint on Saturday in 17th place.
Laegreid struggled particularly at the shooting range. “I’m not in top shape yet, but that wasn’t planned,” he said afterwards on “NRK”: “The only thing I’m a little dissatisfied with is the prone series.” He made two mistakes and therefore had nothing to do with the fight for the podium.
Laegreid has already secured his ticket for the World Cup opener in Östersund (November 29th).
Norwegians are fighting for their World Cup ticket
The victory in Geilo went to the Norwegian Johan-Olav Botn, who, like second-placed Isak Leknes Frey and third-placed Eric Perrot from France, managed without any shooting errors. After the last salvo, Botn made a strong final sprint and took the win.
“It didn’t feel good on the track,” said Botn, but he wasn’t completely satisfied: “But the result was definitely good.” He and Frey pushed each other forward: “We knew what was needed today – ten hits and good cross-country skiing, and we can both do that.”
The duo are still fighting for one of the three open places in the Norwegian World Cup squad in Östersund in Geilo, as are Vetle Sjastad Christiansen (4th), Sverre Dahlen Aspenes (23rd), Sivert Bakken and Johannes Dale-Skjevdal (22nd). In addition to Laegreid, Martin Uldal, Endre Strömsheim and Vebjörn Sörum have already been confirmed for the team.
In addition to the French, the Italian biathletes also started in Geilo. Tommaso Giacomel achieved the best result (2 errors), he came ninth.