PHOTO: Bildbyrån
This year’s biathlon season was a great success for Sweden.
Now the expert Björn Ferry points out the big highlight of the season.
– It was the greatest experience for me, he admits to SVT.
The biathlon season is over for this time and the Swedish national team can look back on a very successful season. Where Hanna Öberg found back to great form, Sebastian Samuelsson exceeded all expectations in the WC and Lynn Persson took seriously.
Great success in the WC
Of course, the Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof was the big highlight of the season, although we have seen many impressive efforts at the World Cup as well. The big favorite before the championship was Elvira Öberg but when she failed to take a single medal, it was instead several other Swedes who convinced.
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Sweden set a record for the most medals ever won during the Biathlon World Cup 2023 and the great World Cup queen was Hanna Öberg with her two gold medals and four World Cup medals in total. But when the SVT expert Bjorn Ferry get to pick their favorite moment from the entire season, it’s about another golden hero instead.
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Ferry’s favorite
Ferry chooses the men’s mass start and the great drama of the very last WC race. When Samuelsson settled with Martin Ponsiluoma and the WC king Johannes Thingnes Bö about the last WC gold.
– It has been an absolutely incredible season for the Swedish biathletes, so it is difficult to single out any specific highlight. But if I have to do it, then I choose the men’s mass start at the WC, admits Ferry to SVT Sport.
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The Norwegian dominant Thingnes Bö had previously collected WC gold medals in a pile in Oberhof. But had no chance against the Swedish success duo for the day.
– It was absolutely incredible! When Ponsiluoma took the lead one second ahead of Samuelsson and seven seconds after, a wildly waving Johannes Thingnes Bö came with murder in his eyes. How would it go, what would they do? Would they release Bö and try to hang on to possibly beat him in a sprint? Hard to know, the expert told the TV channel.
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It would be a powerful, blue-yellow display on the last stretch of the mass start and Sebastian Samuelsson took care of the WC gold, before Martin Ponsiluoma who got to celebrate a very strong WC silver. And Thingnes Bö only had to settle for a bronze medal, watch the race again below.
– The one who is most creative and can come up with the most superior and most surprising will be the one who will take home the victory. It was Sebastian Samuelsson. In the long uphill he made a surprising move. Ponsiluoma could not answer. And Johannes Thingnes Bö turned pale and gave up, says Ferry, remembering.
– It was the greatest experience for me and a Swedish double victory at the WC. Incredible!
What do you think of the Swedish biathletes’ effort this season? Share the article and have your say!
Watch the race: