The Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Bö is still unstoppable: He celebrates his fourth gold medal in the World Championships. Benedikt Doll missed the podium in fifth place.
With eleven degrees and sunshine, the biathletes fought for gold in Oberhof on Tuesday. The previous dominator of the World Championships Johannes Thingnes Bö reached for his fourth gold medal, but two in the field wanted to prevent that at all costs: the French Olympic champion Quentin Fillion Maillet and Bö’s compatriot Sturla Holm Laegreid.
In Oberhof’s slush snow, both had a dream day, at least until the last shooting. Until then, both remained flawless and for a long time it looked as if they could crash the Oberhofer Bö party. Because the dominator had already collected two penalties after three shootings and thus two penalty minutes.
Final standing decision
At the last stop at the shooting range, however, the race turned: Fillon Maillet and Laegreid made a mistake for the first time, while Bö, on the other hand, shot clean. Thanks to a strong performance on the track, the dominator from Norway took the lead again and ran to his third individual medal at this World Championships, the third gold. Second, Laegreid provided the next Norwegian double success. Fillon Maillet was pushed back to fourth place by Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden.
Doll best German in singles
Benedikt Doll was the best German starter in front of the home crowd. After a mistake in the first prone stage, he shot clean for the rest of the race. He was also able to keep up with the leaders on the cross-country ski run and in the end just missed the podium as 5th. Philipp Nawrath convinced in his first competition at this World Championships. Despite two penalties on the shooting range, he was still ninth.
Justus Strelow, who was not supposed to be in action at all, also delivered a strong race and shot clean until the last standing stage. After a penalty minute at the end, he just missed the top 10.
Roman Rees had a solid race, but two penalty minutes prevented him from finishing in the top twenty. It was a day to forget for David Zobel: he collected a total of three shooting errors and also fell far short of the leaders on the cross-country ski run.