Swede Martin Ponsiluoma wins the first biathlon singles of the season in Kontiolahti. Two sensations complete the podium.
The sports show expert Erik Lesser spoke on Tuesday (November 29th, 2022) before the start of the men’s individual biathlon about how much he would like to come back to Kontiolahti. Here he became world champion twice in 2015, here he made his debut as an expert.
And so Lesser has already anticipated the story of the day a little bit. Because not only he should like to come here in the future: also the Swede Martin Ponsiluoma, the Swiss Niklas Hartweg and the Upper Bavarian David Zobel.
Ponsiluoma before the big surprises Hartweg and Zobel
Ponsiluoma celebrated his first World Cup victory outside of the World Championships over the 20 kilometers on Tuesday. In 2021 he already won World Championship gold in Pokljuka, the race was also counted as a World Cup. Now, after just one mistake in the second shooting, i.e. after a total of 19 of the 20 targets hit, he raced to the clear opening win.
Right behind the next two, much bigger surprises: 37.2 seconds behind Ponsiluoma, the flawless Swiss Niklas Hartweg took second place ahead of the strongest German David Zobel (+ 59.3 seconds), both made it onto the podium for the first time. Roman Rees was second best in the DSV team and finished fourth, just 1.6 seconds behind Zobel. Zobel hit all targets, Rees only allowed one mistake.
Hartweg also successful as a musician
Incidentally, 22-year-old Hartweg was born in Germany and has both Swiss and German citizenship because his father is German. He also publishes music albums under the name “Nik Perry”, where he has been more successful so far, now he ran onto the World Cup podium for the first time – a really strong competition.
“So far I haven’t quite realized it,” said Hartweg in an interview with Sportschau. “I think it was the first time I had four clean shots in the competition.” At the right time. He could already feel his improving form during training: “I’m not completely surprised, I’ve felt really good for the past few weeks.”
Rees: “It’s bitter that my team-mate pushed me off the podium”
Zobel is four years older and has only been part of the German World Cup team since 2021. In the elimination immediately before the season he prevailed against, among others, the World Cup experienced Philipp Horn and Lucas Fratzscher. And that with the last push – that apparently has a system: Now Zobel with the high number 74 still ran in third place.
Directly in front of Rees, who trembled in front of the Sportschau microphone when Zobel crossed the finish line and finally said: “I totally begrudge him it. It’s a bit bitter that my own teammate pushes me off the podium. Well, fourth place is kind of bitter, but pretty good too.” And so, in the end, Rees was able to laugh again.
Fillon Maillet and Bö run after the start
And what are Lesser’s biggest season favorites Quentin Fillon Maillet and Johannes Thingnes Boe doing? They had a surprisingly difficult time at the start. The overall World Cup winner of the previous season, Fillon Maillet, collected two penalty minutes right at the beginning, like Bö, in the end the Frenchman was 15th – and the Norwegian 12th.
Bold with one of the fastest runtimes – but four errors
The rest of the Germans, on the other hand, had significantly more problems with the four shooting bouts than Zobel and Rees. Justus Strelow was 17th with two penalties, Philipp Nawrath was 18th with the same number, and Benedikt Doll was 20th with three penalties.
Johannes Kühn even missed four times – and finished 26th. “We worked very well in the summer and things went very well over long stretches,” said Kühn nonetheless. He had one of the fastest times of the day.