PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Sweden got off to a nightmare start at the Biathlon World Cup.
Sebastian Samuelsson burst into tears after his fiasco in the relay.
Now the Swedish national team also has to endure stinging criticism from the Norwegian icon Ole Einar Björndalen.
The Swedish national team went into the opening race of the Biathlon World Cup with high expectations. But the mixed relay was a pure horror experience and it was the worst Sebastian Samuelsson which failed completely on the fourth and final stretch.
The Swedish fiasco
The 25-year-old shot himself away completely when there were six misses and three penalty rounds on the prone shooting and there the relay was over for Sweden. Sweden eventually finished in ninth place and a full 2.33 minutes behind World Cup gold medalists Norway.
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Samuelsson was completely distressed after the finish and tears came in the goal trap after he realized that something must have been seriously wrong with the weapon.
– Something has happened with the weapon, that is my analysis. All shots are very high up. I cannot understand anything other than that something has happened to the weapon, or that there is something else strange, the Swede told the Norwegian newspaper VG.
READ MORE: The explanation for the Swedish giant flop in the World Cup – pointed out after Samuelsson’s nightmare: “It is his responsibility”
Critique of the icon
Later on Wednesday evening, “Sebbe” could state that the screws on the rifle had come loose and that it had affected his shooting for the day, which he wrote outright in a post on Instagram.
– Something must have happened between the insertion and when I started. It could have been that someone entered the weapon on the way to the start, I don’t know, said a dejected Samuelsson after the race.
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Norwegian biathlon icon Ole Einar Björndalen now goes hard at the Swedish effort in the WC relay and is strongly critical after the blue-yellow fiasco.
– The Swedes ride as if in an exhibition race and do not seem to have a proper plan, says Björndalen, who is an expert at Norwegian TV2.
READ MORE: The Norwegian superstar’s new mockery of Samuelsson – despite the explanation about the weapon miss: “It’s deserved”
The Swedish national team has also been touched by the criticism from the Norwegian and responds as follows:
– It is difficult to answer. When we come in ninth place, it is easy to criticize us. Of course it was not part of our plan, says the Swedish shooting coach Jean-Marc Chabloz to VG.
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