PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Martin Ponsiluoma took home the victory in Tuesday’s biathlon premiere in Finnish Kontiolahti – while the Norwegian skiers flopped.
And maybe it had something to do with the preparations.
Sweden spared no expense in terms of convenience.
The biathlon season started on Tuesday, but individual starts in Finland and Kontiolahti. For the Swedish part, it was an immediate success when Martin Ponsiluoma took home the victory – at the same time as Sebastian Samuelsson finished in fifth place.
“We’ve gotten used to it”
For Norway, it didn’t go quite as well. The Norwegians did not dominate the Swedes at the top after the two brothers Johannes Thingnes Bö and Tarjei Bö among other things shot himself away. Best Norwegian was Sturla Holm Lagreid in sixth place.
– We have gotten used to the Swedes crushing us at the World Cup premiere. It happened again this year. It is just very impressive, it was stated from the Norwegian camp afterwards according to Aftonbladet.
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Preparation and performance may not be everything, but in this particular case it seems to have made the difference. When the Swedish team arrived at the premiere, they did so by chartered plane from Östersund, while Norway took the bus the five hours it took to Kontiolahti.
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Norwegian envy
In addition to the chartered flight, Sweden has also gone to the trouble of buying a brand new Valla bus which, according to Aftonbladet, cost as much as SEK 8 million.
– I think they (Norway) are a little jealous of the Valla bus. It is really top notch. We should be very happy with the priorities that the association is making, says Martin Ponsiluoma about the investments.
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However, the Norwegian riders are not quite as satisfied.
– We have probably flown here before. But we have had problems getting the luggage from Helsinki to Joensuu, especially our guns. Now it was only an hour and 20 minute layover so we didn’t dare take the risk. So it was a bus, says Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen.
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Which also admits that the Norwegians should take after the Swedes.
– I spoke with Sebbe (Sebastian Samuelsson) on the training day and they had taken a charter flight directly from Östersund. They invest time and money in optimizing the preparations. I think we Norwegians have a lot to learn from that. I think we used up everything on the Olympic preparations. We needed to charter a flight from Verona in Italy and had a large aircraft for ten people. Maybe the cash ran out there.
Success for Hanna Öberg
For the Swedish ladies – who raced for the first time on Wednesday – it was a victory there as well Hanna Öberg responsible for a giant race that meant victory. Just like partner Martin Ponsiluoma. For the little sister and big favorite Elvira Öberg, it was more difficult since she pushed herself away despite a good start in the competition.