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- At the opening of the biathletes season in Kontiolahti (FIN), Benjamin Weger is the best of the quartet of Swiss men in more than 20 km.
- Norway’s Sturla Holm Lägreid celebrates a surprise victory.
- With women, Dorothea Wierer prevails like a wafer.
The men’s biathlon season started with a big surprise. The fact that the winner is from Norway is not yet a sensation. But the winner is not Johannes Thingnes Bö, but Sturla Holm Lägreid. Never heard? It is not surprising. The 23-year-old has only played rarely in the World Cup so far.
At Kontiolahti, Lägreid had the opportunity to work again and made the most of it. He hit the target with 20 shots and prevailed with almost 20 seconds of advantage over Bö, the dominator of recent years. Like German third-placed Erik Lesser, Bö missed a goal.
8 World Cup points for Weger
None of the members of the Swiss quartet performed a feat. Benjamin Weger completed his first two shoots of the season without errors. But after that he made a mistake, so in the end he finished 33rd. Unlike Jeremy Finello (44th), Sebastian Stalder (54th) and Niklas Hartweg (60th), he still threw him some points in the World Cup.
Wierer narrowly wins: Swiss duo on points
The 15 km women’s race became the favorite. Dorothea Wierer, the overall winner of the World Cup from the previous season, didn’t go wrong with 20 shots and looked like the sovereign winner for a long time. But in the end, the southern Tyrolean was just 0.8 seconds ahead of Germany’s Denise Herrmann, who recovered almost a minute from Wierer after a misfire on the cross-country ski trail. Third place went to Johanna Skottheim (SWE).
Swiss women were out of the top 30. Aita Gasparin (34th) and Lena Häcki (40th) just got into the points. Selina Gasparin did not participate in the demanding individual race on short notice due to a cold. The 36-year-old wants to start in the sprint on Sunday.
