Huge success so far in the WC.
But in the single mixed relay, Sweden was not enough.
Hanna Öberg and Sebastian Samuelsson finished fourth – after a huge miss in the last shot.
Sweden has had an absolutely fantastic start to this year’s Biathlon World Championships. Before Thursday, Sweden had six medals to their credit. Hanna Öberg won gold in Wednesday’s distance race, and also had a silver in the sprint earlier.
Successful start at the WC
On the men’s side, Sebastian Samuelsson had also won two bronze medals. When the mixed singles relay was to be decided on Thursday, hopes were therefore high for Sweden – who fielded Hanna Öberg and Sebastian Samuelsson in particular. Six times before, Öberg and Samuelsson had competed in the distance, and five of the times it had ended with a podium place.
Hanna Öberg started strongly and despite a miss it was only seconds up to leading Italy. Hanna Öberg was good with even after the second shot, and when she handed over to Samuelsson for the first time, Sweden was seconds from the lead. Sebastian Samuelsson had some problems in his first shoot, but he avoided the penalty round – but he still dropped to sixth place.
– That he has to do better, says shooting coach Johan Hagström in SVT.
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Big drama
Samuelsson had a miss in his second shoot, and when he handed it back to Öberg, Sweden was fifth, 36 seconds behind leading Austria. Hanna Öberg did everything right initially during her second leg. She went fastest, shot full in her first shoot, continued to go fastest – but then had two misses in her second shoot. She set the extra shots, but was 30 seconds from a podium place when Sebastian Samuelsson went out on his final stretch.
Sebastian Samuelsson needed to make a feat to take Sweden up to a medal place – but in the first shoot, Norway was forced into a penalty round, but Sweden was still 20 seconds from a medal before the last shoot. Sweden needed one of the three nations in front to be forced into a penalty shootout, and Italy was forced into two. Sweden had the chance – but then everything went wrong.
Samuelsson first stood on the wrong mat. When he switched to right, he continued with three misses. He scored two of the extra shots, but was forced into a penalty round, and thus Sweden’s medal chance disappeared.
Norway won the competition by far, which means that Johannes Thingnes Bö has five golds out of a possible five this WC. Sweden finished fourth, far from medals.
– Sebastian’s shooting is not good today. It is not approved, says Björn Ferry.
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