Quentin Fillon Maillet put a damper on the Norwegian biathlon party on the first World Cup weekend. The Frenchman secured victory on Sunday (December 7th, 2025) with a perfect standing stage. The Germans missed the top ten.
Philipp Nawrath was also the best German ski hunter in the first pursuit race over 12.5 km in Östersund, Sweden. The veteran crossed the finish line in 13th place with just one mistake but a poor running time. He lost one place compared to the sprint. But much more important: After Philipp Horn, Nawrath is now safely qualified for the Winter Games in February with two top 15 placements. “It’s a brutal level in the field,” said Nawrath, referring to the competition. “I can’t do anything else at the moment.”
Johan-Olav Botn misses triple
At no point did the once again weak DSV aces have anything to do with the outcome of the race. Unlike Fillon Maillet. The 33-year-old didn’t allow himself to be unsettled by two errors in the prone stage and in the end he still managed to win with two error-free standing stages. He went back onto the track with an 18 second lead and couldn’t be caught again.
Behind Fillon Maillet, Sebastian Samuelsson from Sweden (+ 6.7 seconds/2) took second place. The Norwegian Johan-Olav Botn (+10.3 s/2) had to be content with third place on Sunday. Until halfway through the race it looked like an Östersund triple for Botn. The Norwegian, who won the individual and the sprint, was initially in the lead, but had to give up at the shooting range for the first time this season and had two penalties with no chance of his third victory in the third individual.
Only Nawrath is convincing at the shooting range
Nawrath, Justus Strelow and Philipp Horn were still within striking distance after the sprint and were a good minute behind the leaders. The trio arrived at the first shooting test almost at the same time. Strelow and Nawrath cleared the field, Horn had to go into the lap and initially fell back. Strelow and Nawrath also shone in the second prone position. Because there was good shooting in the field, the two DSV runners did not make any decisive progress. In places 13 and 14, the gap to the leaders remained around 50 seconds.
Fast shooter Strelow without target water
Experience has shown that the chaff separates in hunting races when the standing position occurs. It was the same in Östersund. The Germans also wobbled. With two errors, Strelow left the group of top ten candidates, Nawarth escaped with one penalty and returned in 13th place, 1:09 minutes behind. Nawrath also came away strong at the last stop, but his running performance – only the 24th running time in the field – was not enough to move forward. On the home straight, the Swede Martin Ponsiluoma even rushed past and pushed Nawrath into 13th place.
The German still had reason to be happy: he returned from Sweden with the Olympic ticket. Horn has already “booked” this – but things didn’t go well for the Thuringian as his pursuer. With a total of four mistakes, he fell from 16th place after the sprint to 20th place (+ 2:09.5 minutes). The otherwise confident shooter Strelow also had major problems when shooting standing. With four errors he was pushed through to 23rd place.
Riethmüller and Kaiser miss the top 30
The standing attack, on the other hand, was Danilo Riethmüller’s best side. He remained flawless while standing. But he didn’t get a good placement because he made three mistakes in the prone position. A catch-up race – Riethmüller started in 25th place after the sprint (+ 1:37.7 minutes) – was therefore not possible. In the end, Riethmüller crossed the finish line in 31st place. Simon Kaiser (3 errors) came 36th in the field of 56 ski hunters.