Tommaso Giacomel stretched his right arm with the mourning ribbon upwards and looked towards the sky with tears in his eyes. Despite the deep sadness for his friend Sivert Guttorm Bakken, who suddenly died, the Italian won the sprint race at the start of the Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof.
After ten kilometers, Giacomel was 13.2 seconds ahead of second-placed Philipp Nawrath and dedicated the victory to Bakken. The Norwegian Johannes Dale-Skjevdal (+25.2 seconds), whom Giacomel hugged in the finish area, came third.
In the subsequent women’s race, which was brought forward by one day due to expected weather conditions, Franziska Preuß and Janina Hettich-Walz impressed in fifth and sixth place. The winner over 7.5 kilometers was Elvira Öberg from Sweden ahead of Suvi Minkkinen from Finland and Julia Simon from France.
Despite the victory, no joy
However, the emotional focus was on the previous men’s sprint with winner Giacomel. “It’s really strange today. It’s one of my best days in biathlon and at the same time one of my worst because Sivert is no longer here. That makes me extremely sad,” said the Italian on ARD. Asked if it was a win for Bakken, he said, “Yes.” Despite the success, he couldn’t be happy, said the 25-year-old, who, like Dale-Skjevdal and his teammate Martin Uldal (5th), fought back tears at the award ceremony. There was no joy.
Moving ceremony for Bakken
Together with the Norwegians, Giacomel remembered Bakken at a moving and tearful ceremony. A good two weeks after the sudden death of the 27-year-old Norwegian, the first World Cup of the Olympic year was dominated by mourning. Giacomel and the Norwegians cried during the minute’s silence, held the start number 1 reserved for Bakken in their hands, applauded bravely and ran the 10 kilometers with a mourning ribbon on their arm.
Nawrath was not in the arena at the time, but knew about the ceremony. “It was all very hard and emotional,” said Nawrath. At a meeting the day before, Giacomel was very upset. But he was able to do it really well “or maybe that’s why he delivered such a race.”
Nawrath is happy about second place
Despite the circumstances, the 32-year-old was happy about his second place and his first podium finish in the Olympic winter. “It’s really a huge relief,” he said. Philipp Horn was the second best German in seventh place. David Zobel came in a good twelfth place and achieved half the Olympic standard, Lucas Fratzscher took 16th place. This gave the quartet good conditions for the pursuit on Saturday (12 p.m./ARD and Eurosport).
The focus of the first race after Bakken’s death was Giacomel and the Norwegians. “We don’t expect much from ourselves here. We want to honor Sivert,” said Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen before the race. The overall World Cup leader Johan-Olav Botn, who found his friend dead in his hotel room in Lavazé, Italy, on December 23rd, did not travel to Thuringia due to illness, as did Sturla Holm Laegreid.
Bakken’s funeral is next Tuesday in Lillehammer. Many of the Norwegian team will be there, as team manager Per Arne Botnan confirmed to Norwegian media. They are flying to Norway on Monday in order to return to Germany after the funeral on Tuesday evening. The World Cup starts on Wednesday in Ruhpolding with the women’s relay.