Sturla Holm Laegreid’s Dream Season Continues, Wins IBU 20 km World Championship
Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid continued what has to be called a dream season, shooting clean to win the IBU 20 km Individual World Championship gold medal in 49:27.6. Today’s win was the young Norwegian’s fifth victory in his first full season on the BMW IBU World Cup circuit. Germany’s Arnd Peiffer, matched Laegreid on the range to win the Silver medal, 16.9 seconds back. Laegreid’s teammate Johannes Dale, with one penalty won the Bronze medal, 40.9 seconds back.
IBU World Championships Men's 20 km Individual
Lifelong Dream
The 23-year-old Laegreid’s win secured his first-ever small crystal globe for the World Cup Individual Score. He admitted today’s victory was a lifelong dream. “It is something I’ve dreamt about my whole life. Even though I had such a good season, I did not expect to be World Champion, so it just feels incredible.”
Very Tired on Last Loop
As for his last five shots in standing, he added, “I thought if I cleaned I could win the Gold. I just had to stay focused and have five good shots. When I did and heard I had a gap I was extremely happy but I was also very tired so the last loop was a struggle with myself.”
Homage to Fourcade
After the competition, Laegreid talked with 2020 IBU 20 km Individual Champion Martin Fourcade. The 2021 Champion admitted that he copied Fourcade’s shooting style. “He is one of the greatest biathletes ever. When I was sick in 2018 and could not train physically, I used a lot of time studying his shooting technique and tried to copy his way of shooting; he is the reason why I shoot like I did today.”
Quentin Fillon Maillet of France finished, with two penalties, finished fourth, 1:12.9 back. Johannes Thingnes Boe, also with two penalties, finished fifth, 1:13.5 back, while RBU’s Said Karimulla Khalili had with his best-ever result, shot clean to finish sixth, 1:45.3 back.
Spring Like Day
Just like the women had yesterday, it was another blue-sky day at Pokljuka with a hint of spring in the air +4 temperature and once again very light wind on the shooting range.
The competition started with numerous clean first prone stages, but none by the favorites until Johannes Dale and Simon Eder moved to the top of the standings with perfect shooting. The Yellow Bib and Jakov Fak just a minute apart raised the bar with clean stages to move into the top two spots. Late starter Peiffer moved into third with a clean stage. Things heated up when Laegreid who won the first 20 km individual of the season shot clean to move ahead of his teammate and Peiffer.
Laegreid in Control
Fillon Maillet, who missed in the first prone stage. quickly downed his five standing shots in the second stage to move into first position. Eder after a strong start missed a shot to fall over a minute back. Dale also had a penalty but was skiing much faster, only falling 31 seconds from the lead. Johannes like his teammate picked up one penalty, but still managed to get 4 seconds ahead of Fillon Maillet. Peiffer continued to up the ante with his second clean stage, good enough to move ahead of Johannes. Yet it only lasted a couple of minutes as the skiing-faster Laegreid did the same to widen his lead to 30 seconds.
Peiffer and Laegreid
Fillon Maillet had another penalty while Dale then cleaned to move to the top of the leaderboard; his lead did not last long as Johannes dispatched his five targets to take a 26-second margin on the field. Peiffer remained on fire on the range, cleaning for the third consecutive time, but Laegreid remained just as hot, matching and stretching his lead over the German veteran to 36 seconds. Late starter at number 96 Khalili went to 15-for-15, trying to be the spoiler, and moving up to fourth position.
Laegreid Seals the Win
By the time the first starters reached the last standing stage, the whole shooting range was in the shadows. Fillon Maillet downed his last five targets to take a 1:11 lead but Dale had a steady, clean last standing to move ahead. The Yellow Bib had one more penalty to leave the last standing stage in fourth, 31 seconds behind his teammate. Peiffer completed his perfect day with five more perfect shots to go into the lead, once again for a couple of minutes. The young Norwegian was not to be denied, responding with five fast perfect shots to take the top spot, sealing the victory with just 4 km between him and an IBU WCH Gold medal.
Silver medal to Peiffer
Fillon Maillet pushed hard on the last loop trying to regain some seconds but Dale remained faster and in the lead over the last 4 km to cross 31 seconds faster than his French rival. The Yellow Bib made a big effort to move up in the last loop, but finished .8 seconds behind Fillon Maillet with both missing the podium. Peiffer skied the last loop well, gaining some seconds as Laegreid struggled a bit. Still the Norwegian prevailed, skiing across the finish line punching the sky with his ski poles to celebrate winning his first IBU World Championship title with Peiffer in the Silver medal spot.
Twentieth IBU medal for Peiffer
Peiffer continued his streak of at least one medal in every IBU Junior or World Championship since Ruhpolding 2008, upping his career medal count to 20 plus three Olympic Winter Games medals. The always thoughtful Peiffer, with just his second career podium in a 20 km individual, said, “I think the last one is always the most important one. I am really satisfied. Of course, an individual medal is always special but I hope for another one in the relay, because relays are special and you can celebrate together. Today I am happy to have done a good job on the range because I struggled in the sprint and pursuit…Today I just tried to make a good job. I did not even try to think about a medal because when you are 36, you do not think about medals.”
“Stay in the middle, do your job”
The veteran added how he continues to produce good results. “I try to not make my results affect my self-confidence. If I have a good race, my self-confidence does not go up and it means that it does not go down if I have bad races. I try to be in the middle always. Self-confidence is not good because it makes you feel like you are greater than you are…Just stay in the middle and do your job; that is my advice.”
First Individual Medal for Dale
On the other hand, Bronze medalist Dale’ Bronze medal was his first-ever individual IBU WCH medal. “It means a lot. To take my first individual medal at the World Championships is super big for me. It is an amazing feeling, especially when I do a good race like today…I was very satisfied with my sprint, even though it was not a medal (4th place), I saw that I did a very good race, both in the shooting range and the tracks. I knew if I put together a good race…today I was really well prepared…I am super proud of the race today.”
Photos: IBU/ Thibaut, Manzoni
Sign up for our newsletter
Follow us on:
Sign In
CZ
Search
