It started with a wonderful head-to-head made in Norway between Johannes Boe and Martin Uldal the biathlon World Cup stage of Annecy Le Grand Bornand. And for the first time the champion must surrender to the baby phenomenonwhich iIn a sprint full of errors he is instead perfect at shooting managing to prevail at the photo finish by a second and a half over the leader of the general classification. Boe, however, makes a mistake already at the first shooting range and is forced to chasestill coming one step away from yet another masterpiece of his career. This time, however, he has to settle for the second step of the podium ahead of the Swede Samuelsson, who was also excellent in third with a shooting error and a great performance on skis.
Closing out the top-5 are the German Philipp Horn and the other Norwegian Laegreid. In general, in addition to the winner Uldal, the only home idol Perrot finished without errors in the top ten. Transalpine public who was ready to celebrate his representatives upon arrival, but he has to settle for a trio of placings high ranking, with Jacquelin immediately behind Perrot and Fillon Maillet who is instead 10th. Another black day for Ponsiluoma: the Swede was the protagonist of six shooting errors and barely managed to finish the match in the top 60.
THE AZZURRI’S RACE
A top-10 in which Tommaso Giacomel is also presentninth at the finish line ahead of Fillon Maillet. Another excellent performance from the blue spearhead, always with a bit of regret for that one mistake when shooting in the standing range. In any case, it remains a level performance from the Trentino player, as well as came a good race from the veteran of the group Lukas Hofer. Started with bib no. 26 in the second group, the 35-year-old from Brunico is one step away from returning to the top-10, finishing in 11th place. Less good was Didier Bionaz, who instead makes a mistake both on the ground and standing and is out of the top-30, while Cappellari is as usual perfect in his ranges, continuing his perfect streak at the start of this season, but on skis he loses a lot and fails to find a top-40 placement.
ORDER OF ARRIVAL
- M. Uldal (NOR) 23:13.5
- J. Boe (NOR) +1.4
- S. Samuelsson (SWE) +10.8
- P. Horn (GER) +28.6
- S. H. Laegreid (NOR) +32.3
- P. Nawrath (GER) +41.6
- L. Perrot (FRA) +41.7
- E. Jacquelin (FRA) +44.9
- T. Giacomel (ITA) +46.2
- Q. Fillon Maillet (FRA) +49.8
11. L. Hofer (ITA) +51.8
36. D. Bionaz (ITA) +1:35.2
43. D. Cappellari (ITA) +1:45.8
OVERALL WORLD CUP RANKING
- Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR) 414
- Sturla Holm Laegreid (NOR) 354
- Emilien Jacquelin (FRA) 283
- Sebastian Samuelsson (SVE) 283
- Eric Perrot (FRA) 262
- Philipp Nawrath (GER) 227
- Vebjoern Soerum (NOR) 210
- Endre Stromsheim (NOR) 199
- Fabien Claude (FRA) 193
- Quentin Fillon Maillet (FRA) 193
13. Tommaso Giacomel (ITA) 151
25. Lukas Hofer (ITA) 97
30. Didier Bionaz (ITA) 62
57. Daniele Cappellari (ITA) 8
Photo: Petter Arvidson / BILDBYRÅN / code PA / PA0751
mixed relay mixed relay mixed relay bbeng biathlon biathlon biathlon biathlon-vm vm ibu world championships biathlon world championships (Photo by PETTER ARVIDSON/Bildbyran/Sipa USA)
PROGRAM ANNECY LE GRAND BORNAND
Friday 20 December – Ore 14:20 Sprint F.
Saturday 21 December – 12.30pm Pursuit M; 2.45pm Pursuit F.
Sunday 22 December – Ore 12:30 Mass Start M; 14:45 Mass Start F.
STREAMING E TV – All races this weekend will be available live on the channels of Eurosporta channel also available on Sky and Dazn, as well as streaming on the Discovery+ platform, on SkyGo and NOW. Alternatively, Sportface.it it will keep you informed with a minute-by-minute live text, the news at the end and all the results so you really don’t miss any emotion.
