Otto Invenius, who won the World Youth Championship silver last winter, took the best place of his career in the Biathlon World Cup. The Finnish men’s team also secured five spots for next season’s tour.
The final weekend of the Biathlon World Cup at Holmenkollen started unexpectedly well for Finns, when the newcomer to the Cup Otto Invenius was 12th in the men’s sprint race on Thursday. The ranking is clearly the best of his career in the World Cup for Invenius, 22. He was 23rd in the Nove Mesto sprint two weeks ago.
Invenius shot both shooting positions cleanly, and when the skiing went well, Invenius covered many big names in the final results, for example Norway Johannes Dale and Tarjei Bön. Last year, the youngster who reached the silver in the junior WC sprint was very happy after his brilliant performance.
– Great race! Right from the start, you noticed that the skiing was smooth. And when I liked the zeros after the zeros as well, I realized that now might be a good investment. It gave the final kilometers an extra boost, even though the going seemed to freeze a bit, Invenius recounted the memorable race to STT by phone from Oslo.
Invenius, who made his World Cup debut a year ago in Oslo, only made it to his first World Cup race this season in January. The fall was made difficult by, among other things, the corona virus, and the early season was difficult. However, through the second level IBU Cup, Invenius found a good mood, which is now being enjoyed in the form of results.
– The condition has improved all the time. Now we’re starting to get nervous, I don’t know what would have happened if the season had continued longer, Invenius mused.
The season continues with Saturday’s pursuit race and possibly Sunday’s joint start as well. In pursuit, Invenius heads “with an empty head to fight”.
– There is a tight bunch of men, some of them slower and some harder skiers. Let’s try to beat those hard skiers as much as possible, and do our own performance again in the shooting, Invenius reflected on Saturday.
Tero Seppälä shot two penalties and was 22nd. Like Invenius, the other Finns got away with the shooting without fines, and Olli Hiidensalo was the 37th as well Jaakko Ranta 48th Only qualified for the chase Tuomas Harjula (67:s).
Five places were secured
A good race in Finnish terms also brought good news for the future. Finland came tenth in the final points of the World Cup for the countries, narrowly overtaking Slovenia, so Finland has five places in the men’s World Cup next season as well.
Friday’s sprint was won by a Norwegian monster Johannes Thingnes Bö before Sweden Martin Ponsilumaa and Germany Benedikt Dollia.