“Managed the standing shooting”

Besides being pleased with his win, Samuelsson was especially proud of his standing shooting and handling skiing alone in the lead for much of the competition. “It was a really great race. I am very satisfied with not only the win but from the prone shooting I was by myself, and I managed the standing shooting which has been so bad for me the entire season. I am very happy with my performance.”

“Celebrate with this crowd…amazing”

The winner celebrated a bit after cleaning the last standing but really was in the mood in the final few hundred meters. “I tried to push until the last uphill and then told myself, ‘now, you can enjoy it.’ I felt so good; we had really good skis; a prefect day. Being able to celebrate with this crowd was truly amazing.”

Italy’s Tommaso Giacomel and Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe finished second and third as in Thursday’s Sprint, with two and three penalties, 26.4 and 38.7 seconds back, respectively.

JT Back in Yellow

Boe’s third place finish put him back in the Yellow Bib with 836 points to Sturla Holm Laegreid’s 831. “It’s good. We do not know how the battle will end. For me, it’s nice to have it for at least one more race, to have a final taste of the Yellow. It’s been a good friend of mine. Fingers crossed to keep it for some races more.” Adding that his young son said, “Yellow fits me best, not the rest!”

France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet finished fourth, with three penalties, 45.5 seconds back. Boe’s teammate, then-Yellow Bib-wearing Sturla Holm Laegreid finished fifth, with one penalty, 53.2 seconds back. Switzerland’s Niklas Hartweg, also with a single penalty finished sixth, 1:14.8 back.

Spring-like Short-sleeve Day

Pursuit Saturday was a carbon copy of the previous two days: a spring-like 16C short-sleeve day, with 20,000+ boisterous fans on hand.

Sprint winner Emilien Jacquelin capitalised on his big lead with a cautious clean first prone, with JT matching, 23 seconds back, and Samuelsson fourth, 32 seconds off the pace.