World Cup relay: Sweden benefits from shaky Norwegians

In a turbulent race, Sweden won the gold medal in the men's relay in Nove Mesto on Saturday afternoon, after Norway had already looked like the sure winner. Johannes Thingnes Bø and Co. then had to settle for silver, while France took bronze.

17. February 2024

From: do

What kind of race was that? The men's World Cup relay in Nove Mesto turned out to be a rollercoaster of emotions - for several nations at the same time. As is so often the case, Norway was the protagonist: After a strong performance from Johannes Thingnes and Tarjei Bø, who compensated for a weakening Sturla Holm Lægreid and handed over to Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen with about a minute's lead over the competition, the best biathlon nation already looked like the safe bet Winner out. But then the final runner, Christiansen, completely lost his nerve. While the otherwise competent shooter cleared everything while lying down, the Norwegian's fingers were noticeably shaking while standing - three penalty laps were the result.

As if out of nowhere, Bø and Co.'s seemingly certain victory evaporated into thin air. The Swede Sebastian Samuelsson benefited from this, seizing the opportunity and making no mistakes in the final shooting. So he surprisingly ran towards victory and won Sweden's first gold medal in a World Cup men's relay. Christiansen at least made up for his mistakes with the rifle in the final section and overtook the Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet in the fight for the silver medal.

A two-part race for the Azzurri

Just like the women, the men also completely lost their nerve, especially at the beginning. After two podium finishes in January, the Azzurri started with great ambitions, but by the time Didier Bionaz, the second runner, placed the first three shots next to the target while lying down, all hopes of a top placement, let alone a medal, were gone. Before the handover, the top runners Lukas Hofer and Tommaso Giacomel could only watch as their colleagues fell far short of expectations.

Lukas Hofer ran after the field. © Pierre TEYSSOT

The South Tyrolean took over from Bionaz in 20th place, 2.01,3:11 minutes behind and was therefore condemned to do damage limitation. The veteran still gave his all and fought his way up place after place and sent final runner Tommaso Giacomel into the race in 2.38,8th place (+1.44,1 minutes), who still led the Italian relay team to a satisfactory sixth place (+XNUMX minutes). The final score was one penalty lap and eleven spare rounds