12:24
Bold without mistakes
An unusually large number of errors are made. Doll has to spin once, Strelow twice – at least Johannes Kühn makes it through without a mistake and can work his way up to fifth place. The Swiss Burkhalter and Stalder as well as Leitner from Austria also manage to get through without making any mistakes.
12:22
First shooting
The leading trio comes to the first shooting together, and the second trio doesn’t have to wait long either. Samuelsson and Tarjei Bø have to circle once, Sturla Holm Laegreid hits all the targets within 23.7 seconds and is now clearly ahead.
12:20
Bø is catching up
Johannes Thingnes Bø has already caught up and is now ahead of Johannes Kühn. The top ten are together within half a minute – that promises a lot of excitement.
12:19
Smaller groups
The two Norwegians at the front have a lead of just under three seconds over Samuelsson – so there will be a top trio straight away. Doll is almost 26 seconds behind and is trying to stay close to Giacomel.
12:17
Narrow field
Sebastian Samuelsson and Martin Ponsiluoma are also on the track and are closely followed by the rest of the top ten. Benedikt Doll and Tommaso Giacomel run together.
12:15
The start has taken place!
Tarjei Bø has opened the chase – the chase can begin and is immediately taken up by Sturla Holm Laegreid, five seconds behind.
12:12
The conditions
It is not as cold in Hochfilzen as in Östersund, where the Germans in particular coped well with the cold snow and icy temperatures. The Norwegians like the warm snow – which can also be seen in the results. The bright sunshine creates a fantastic backdrop – but makes the snow even softer. As always, the ski technicians are in high demand.
12:08
Switzerland still without hard path
The Swiss will also have to do without Niklas Hartweg today. Joscha Burkhalter showed a solid performance yesterday and remained flawless. Today he is 25th, two seconds ahead of David Zobel. Sebastian Stalder had one penalty and is now over a minute and 40 seconds behind the Norwegians at the top. Jeremy Finello completes the Swiss trio and takes up the chase from 51st place. The following applies to the Swiss and the Austrians: A zero at the shooting range is actually mandatory in order not to end up at the bottom of the list.
12:04
Duo for Austria – weak point cross-country skiing
The Austrians are still far away from the top in terms of running. David Komatz made no mistakes and was 19th, the best Austrian. Felix Leitner also delivered a perfect performance at the shooting range, but ran even slower and started today ten places behind his compatriot. Simon Eder did not start the sprint due to illness, Patrick Jakob missed today’s competition in 90th place.
11:58
Doll and Kühn with a good starting position
Philipp Nawrath made three mistakes yesterday and is now no longer allowed to run in yellow. The coveted jersey went to Sebastian Samuelsson, who now leads the overall standings. Benedikt Doll was the best German and showed himself to be in good running form with one penalty. He is 31 seconds behind Tarjei Bø. Nine seconds later, Johannes Kühn will also be on the track. Justus Strelow remained flawless at the shooting range yesterday, but couldn’t quite keep up with his running and now has a backpack of one minute and nine seconds. Roman Rees and David Zobel made too many mistakes yesterday and their deficit is already clear.
11:50
Norwegian-Swedish Festival
Norway and Sweden – these two nations clearly dominated the sprint. Tarjei Bø and Sturla Holm Laegreid fought for victory. The latter had a catastrophic start to the season and had to worry about his place in the World Cup in the strong Norwegian team – but he hit back with second place and put a big exclamation mark. The dominator of the past few years – Johannes Thingnes Bø – once again clearly missed out on the top places due to his three shooting errors, but is increasingly returning to his outstanding running form. With Johannes Dale-Skjevdal and Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen in fifth and sixth place, four Norwegians ended up in the top six. Only the Swedes were able to break the dominance: Sebastian Samuelsson and his compatriot Martin Ponsiluoma took third and fourth place and are in pursuit today, ten and 18 seconds behind respectively.
11:45
Welcome!
After the sprint races yesterday, the pursuit competitions continue today in Hochfilzen. The men will kick off at 12:15 p.m.