- The victory in the first pursuit of the winter 2024/25 in the Biathlon World Cup goes to the Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Bö.
- The Swiss cannot take advantage of their good starting position. Niklas Hartweg falls from 9th place to 31st.
- The Frenchwoman Lou Jeanmonnot wins in the women’s category. From a Swiss women’s perspective, there are two meager top 40 rankings.
Johannes Thingnes Bö won the first pursuit of the 2024/25 biathlon season. The Norwegian, who was the first athlete allowed onto the track, had to fight hard for his victory. The Dominator came to the final shooting together with Frenchman Emilien Jacquelin and compatriot Sturla Lägreid. All three made a miss – for Bö it was already the second mistake.
On the final lap, however, Bö was able to show off his running qualities and leave his competitors behind. Jacquelin ultimately prevailed just ahead of Lägreid and took second place.
Finello best Swiss
For the Swiss, Niklas Hartweg had achieved an excellent starting position for the pursuit race with 9th place the day before. However, he gave these away early. After one mistake in the first and four mistakes in the second shooting, he fell out of contention for a top placement early on. In the end, the 24-year-old finished 31st.
This meant that he was no longer the best Swiss. Jeremy Finello managed to climb to 27th place despite 6 missed shots thanks to a strong running performance. Joscha Burkhalter (5 errors) was 49th, Dajan Danuser (6 errors) finished the pursuit in 58th place.
Swiss women are falling behind
In the women’s race, Lena Häcki-Gross was still unable to build on her form from last season. In the pursuit, as 36th in the final ranking, she lost another 12 positions compared to her performance in the sprint. The woman from Obwalden incurred one penalty in each of the first two prone positions at the shooting range. It continued with even more mistakes: In the end there were 6 missed shots.
Directly behind her was Aita Gasparin in 37th place with 3 errors. This meant that the Grisons woman gained 10 places. Amy Baserga came 44th and Elisa Gasparin 55th. A rather sobering performance in the home World Cup season in Lenzerheide.
Jeanmonnot surpasses Preuss
At the front, Franziska Preuss initially appeared inspired by her first World Cup triumph on Friday after a 2,154-day dry spell and remained flawless in the first two shooting stages. But then the German failed to hit 2 targets in the first standing shot and was replaced as leader by Lou Jeanmonnot.
The Frenchwoman could not be caught until she reached the finish line – also because she excelled in the discipline with the rifle (20 shots – 20 hits). Vanessa Voigt from Germany, who came in second in Tyrol, had the same flawless record. Compatriot Preuss was able to hold her own on the podium with a total of 3 errors.
This is how it continues
The conclusion at the World Cup station in Hochfilzen on Sunday will be the two relay competitions, which you can also follow live on SRF in the commented stream: from 11:25 a.m. for the women and at 2:10 p.m. for the men.
