There was no shortage of events on the opening trip of the Biathlon World Championships. The 4×6 kilometer mixed relay World Cup gold went to Norway when Johannes Thingnes Bo anchored his country as champion.
After the opening section, Norway was 55 seconds behind the leader, when Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold fired a penalty round. Sturla Holm Lägreid lifted Norway to the top fight in the third leg and Bö quickly anchored Norway to victory with a difference of 11.6 seconds before Italy.
In the race, confusion was caused by a hare that scurried in the middle of the ski track. At the end of France Quentin Fillon Maillet confused as well when he was close to the bronze medal for Austria.
– What does Fillon Maillet do? He intends to pass the finish line and almost makes it to the final straight and to the finish line. Huh huh, what a mess it was to become a Frenchman, Urheilu’s commentator Johannes Oikarinen wondered on air.
Fillon Maillet brought bronze to France by a good three seconds.
Finland used too many spare cartridges
Finland’s foursome Suvi Minkkinen–Mari Eder–Tuomas Harjula–Olli Hiidensalo it was 11:s. The difference to the leader was two minutes and 52 seconds.
Finland used eight spare cartridges in the race. Sports expert Ville Kotikumpu calculated that Finland could have reached eighth place at best.
– Norway won as expected, but it was an exciting race. An almost good, quite satisfactory performance from Finland. Finland was not penalized, but a few too many spare cartridges, commented Kotikumpu.
Minkkinen and Harjula each used one spare cartridge. Hiidensalo used two spare cartridges and Eder four.
Eder had difficulties, especially in the upright position, when he couldn’t get a spare cartridge into the barrel. He fidgeted with the lock several times to finally get the cartridge in place.
It took Eder a total of 57 seconds to shoot, which according to Kotikummu was half a minute more than the others.
– Standing there, (the cartridge) didn’t go in and I couldn’t get it out either, so that I could have inserted it with my finger. It took the same amount of time as if I had used three spare cartridges. It just didn’t go in, Eder complained to Urheilu.
Differences on the track
Eder brought Finland to the exchange one minute and 49 seconds behind the leader. Tuomas Harjulan when arriving at the exchange, the gap had increased by six seconds.
– I would say that I will pass with clean papers. Very good skiing. I don’t know how time went, but the feeling was good. The shooting was especially commendable. A good bet, Harjula summarized.
Sports expert Kaisa Mäkäräinen you can see that the Finns performed fairly evenly in the medley relay.
– It wasn’t like one part had failed. The skiing speed was such that it is tight in these games. Even though it was a six-kilometer run, there were still differences in the terrain. Perfect performance on the bench, commented Mäkäräinen.
The World Championships continue after one day off on Friday with the women’s sprint. The live broadcast of the race starts on TV2 and Areena at 15:15.