The team sacrifices women’s medals for his record.
Biathlon. World Cup 2023. Oberhof
Individual race. Women
1. Hanna Eberg (Sweden) — 43.36.1 (1)
2. Lynn Persson (Sweden) – 10.3 (0)
3. Lisa Vitozzi (Italy) — 28.0 (0)
In the men’s biathlon, everyone is already used to listening to the Norwegian anthem at the awards. For the whole season, only once in individual races did a non-representative of this country win – at the stage in Kontiolahti, the gold in the individual race was won by the Swede Martin Ponsiluoma. For women, there is no such dominance of one country. Even within the framework of one World Championship in Oberhof, someone new wins every time in individual races. In the sprint, the first place went to the German Denise Hermann-Wick, in the pursuit – to the Frenchwoman Julie Simon. In the individual race, it was time for the Swedish holiday – Hanna Oeberg won the gold.
Biathlon World Championship — watch on Okko!
Weakened competition
Not all the strongest biathletes at the moment came to the start of the individual race. Sweden was missing Elvira Oeberg. She misses the second race of the world championship. After the sprint in Oberhof, where Elvira took 16th place, the athlete felt unwell, and therefore did not run in the pursuit. By the time of the prostitute, her condition improved, but it was still not ideal. The biathlete decided to save herself.
Elvira is an important element in the Swedish women’s relay team. Now she is the leader of the team. In the overall World Cup standings, the youngest of the Oeberg sisters takes second place. In addition, Elvira is the owner of a blue jersey – it is worn by the best athlete under 25 years old. The women’s relay will take place on Saturday, February 18. With healthy Oeberg sisters and stable Lynn Persson, Sweden has the highest chance of winning in it.
Elvira Eberg.
Photo AFP
Another situation with the Norwegian team. Everyone on their women’s team is healthy. However, the current World Cup winner Martha Ulsby-Røiseland was sent to the reserve for the individual race. At the World Championships, she shows the best results of the team: fourth in the sprint and bronze in the pursuit.
They take care of Marte for the sake of Johannes Beh. He is closer than ever to the eternal record – he can win seven races of the World Championship out of seven. Already in the collection there are gold medals in the mixed relay, sprint, pursuit and individual race. It remains to close three “targets” – single mixed, men’s relay and mass start. Next on his schedule is a single-mix. In this discipline, teams consist of two people: a man and a woman. So Johannes needs a strong partner. The choice of the coaching staff obviously fell on Roiseland. Since the single-mixed will take place the day after the women’s individual, Marta was sent to the reserve and allowed to rest before a more important start.
How many times does Johannes Beh have to miss to lose? Norwegian continues to churn out victories in Oberhof
Insidious first frontier
All the hope of the Norwegians in the individual race was on Ingrid Tandrevold, who is ninth in the overall World Cup standings. However, she flunked the first rack – three misses, depriving herself of any chance of a medal. In contrast to the performance of the Norwegian men, who always stick out on the podium, the women’s results look unusual. In the individual, the best of the Norwegian team was just Tandrevold, who took 11th place.
The weather during the race made it possible to accurately work on the lines. There was no fog, no gusty wind, no rain or snow. But for some reason, many of the leaders could not cope with the first prone. In a penalty minute, the owner of the yellow jersey of the leader, Julija Simon, and the Czech Marketa Davidova in the golden bibe, which she was given as the winner of the prostitute at the last World Cup, were taken away from the border. Hanna Oeberg also missed one prone target, but this was the only miss for her and did not prevent the Swede from winning the race.
Could get around Oeberg Italian Lisa Vitozzi. Now she leads the standings in the individual races. In Kontiolahti, Lisa was third, and in Ruhpolding, first. At the World Championships, she got, one might say, a lucky starting number – eleventh. Under it, the day before, Johannes Be performed in the male individual and won it. However, Vitozzi lacked the shooting that the Norwegian had on the fourth frontier. Having made 19 accurate shots out of 19, her 20th flew past. And the miss was far enough.
Lisa Vitocci.
Reuters photo
Purely in the individual shot three. Among them is Finn Suvi Minkenen, who for the first time in her career at this level got into the top 10 in individual races – eighth place. Also, 20 out of 20 were made by the Italian Samuela Comola, who finished fourth. For her, these are the debut “flowers” in the elite of the world biathlon. And Swedish Lynn Persson’s clean shooting brought silver. This is her second medal in Oberhof. In the sprint, Lynn was third.
Then we follow the single-mix and especially Johannes Beh, who is three steps away from his greatness. The race will take place on Thursday, February 16th.
