RESULTS Men's Pursuit Le Grand Bornand 2024

Johannes Boe he didn't seem to have digested second place very well in the sprint that opened the weekend by Le Grand Bornardthird stage of the World Cup 2024/2025 of biathlon, and then dominates the pursuit and obtains victory number 3 of the season. The Norwegian champion confirms himself as unrivaled in the specialty, managing to impose himself as he did last week in Hochfilzen. As in Austria, Emilien Jacquelin took the podium, but this time in third place behind his compatriot Eric Perrot, who continued his excellent start to the year. Samuelsson flies on skis but with five shooting errors he can only settle for fifth place ahead of Laegreid, while the other Norwegian Soerum is fourth. After Thursday's exploit, Martin Uldal slipped to the back of the pack, starting first and finishing 21st at the finish line.

Chiaroscuro race for the Italian teamwith Tommaso Giacomel starting quite badly but improving thereafter and managing to limit the damage, finishing in eleventh position. Lukas Hofer, who started 11th, instead finishes 20th. Bad day for Didier Bionaz, who slipped to 45th place, while Ceppallari was 54th.

THE FIRST PART OF THE RACE

The two Norwegians actually start paired after coming within a few hundredths of each other in Thursday's race. No shocks in the first lap and on the range on the ground, with both shooting perfect unlike Samuelsson who lost a couple of positions from third. A first session with the rifle in which there are few errors, but unfortunately Tommaso Giacomel is among those who make a lot of mistakeswho from ninth starting position found himself sixteenth at the end of the opening lap. Lukas Hofer, on the other hand, did well as he was perfect at shooting and kept himself close to the top-10, as did Bionaz who recovered something compared to his starting bib.

Uldal and Boe continue together until the second shooting range, where however the young Norwegian makes two errors and allows his compatriot to make the first breakthrough of this match. Boe exits the second lap with 23″ on Jacquelin, 26″ on Samuelson and 28″ on Laegreid, with Uldal having slipped to fourth position. Another error does not allow Giacomel to move up the rankings and the situation is no better for the other Italians: two errors for Hofer and the same for Bionaz, both around thirtieth place.

TOWARDS THE FINISH

Moe seems to be having one of his good days and even at the first standing shooting range he is simply perfect, increasing the distance to his pursuers: Jacquelin, with an error, is first, 44″ behind the Norwegian. Behind him Perrot and Laegreid, while Samuelsson misses twice and risks definitively compromising his presence on the podium today. Giacomel's race continued along the lines of the first two laps, with a fourth error which still kept him outside the top-15. Hofer remains in the top 30, while rushes Didier Bionaz with even three errors that put him in the last positions together with Cappellari.

In the last shooting range of this race comes the first snag within range of Boewhich pIn any case, he can manage a large margin over the pursuernamely the two Frenchmen Perrot and Jacquelin who both managed to get on the podium with a good advantage over Soerum, Samuelsson and Laegreid. A good shooting performance finally arrives for Giacomel, who climbs up to twelfth position, as does Hofer who is back in the top 20.

ORDER OF ARRIVAL

1. J.T. Boe (NOR) 31:25.4
2. E. Perrot (FRA) +27.6
3. E. Jacquelin (FRA) +47.5
4. V. Soerum (NOR) +57.5
5. S. Samuelsson (SWE) +1:03.6
6. S.H. Laegreid (NOR) +1:05.0
7. D. Riethmueller (GER) +1:07.9
8. P. Horn (GER) +1:10.8
9. J. Fak (SLO) +1:33.0
10. V. S. Christiansen (NOR) +1:43.1

11. T. Giacomel (ITA) +1:40.8
20. L. Hofer (ITA) +2:04.4
45. D. Bionaz (ITA) +3:39.2
54. D. Cappellari (ITA) +4:49.4

GENERAL WORLD CUP RANKING

1. Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR) 504
2. Sturla Holm Laegreid (NOR) 399
3. Emilien Jacquelin (FRA) 348
4. Eric Perrot (FRA) 338
5. Sebastian Samuelsson (SVE) 323
6. Vebjoern Soerum (NOR) 265
7. Philipp Nawrath (GER) 251
8. Fabien Claude (FRA) 226
9. Quentin Fillon Maillet (FRA) 210
10. Martin Uldal (NOR) 201

14. Tommaso Giacomel (ITA) 191
25. Lukas Hofer (ITA) 118
33. Didier Bionaz (ITA) 62
59. Daniele Cappellari (ITA) 8

PROGRAM ANNECY LE GRAND BORNAND

Saturday 21 December – 2.45pm Pursuit F.

Sunday 22 December – Ore 12:30 Mass Start M; 14:45 Mass Start F.