World Cup victory! Lukas Hofer crowns his fantastic season

The top three were magical for Lukas Hofer for a long time this year. He often came very close, but it didn't really work out. Then it's the last weekend in Nove Mesto Knot finally burst and the Montaler finished third in the sprint. Now the 31-year-old went one better and left everyone behind in the final sprint of the season in Östersund.

Hofer showed a competition close to perfection on Friday. On the cross-country ski trail he felt like he was on rails and on the shooting range he cleared all ten targets with exceptional coolness. Ultimately, the decisive factor was his final lap, in which he practically flew over the snow and thus secured the victory.

The only threat to him was local Swedish hero Sebastian Samuelsson, who was almost level with Hofer for a long time, but ultimately crossed the finish line four seconds behind. Third place went to Tarjei Bø, 14 seconds behind. The battle for the overall World Cup between Sturla Holm Lægreid (sixth on Friday) and Johannes Thingnes Bø (seventh) continues to be exciting: with two competitions to go, the two Norwegians are very close to each other at the top of the rankings. The last time he triumphed was in Antholz For Lukas Hofer it is the second World Cup victory of his career. He got his first in January 2014: At that time, the Pusterer came in first place in the sprint at the home World Cup in Antholz at the same time as the German Simon Schempp.

Showed a very strong race: Lukas Hofer. © APA/afp / ANDERS WIKLUND

This year, Hofer has been extremely consistent throughout the season: he has only failed to finish in the top 24 in three of the 20 competitions so far, including the win on Friday, he has nine top 10 results to his name. An outstanding winter, or as Hofer himself says: the best season of his life.

For South Tyrol there was double reason to be happy on Friday: a few hours before the Hofer masterpiece, Dorothea Wierer had already finished second in the women's sprint on the podium ( SportNews berichtete ). Dominik Windisch also delivered a strong race, finishing in 27th place.

The pursuits are on the program on Saturday. It's the ladies' turn at 12.15:15.15 p.m., the men's turn at XNUMX:XNUMX p.m. Wierer and Hofer will also be expected there. The result in detail

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World Cup victory! Lukas Hofer crowns his fantastic season

This Lukas Hofer is in exhilarating form: On Friday he celebrated his first World Cup victory in seven years in the final sprint of the season.

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