Botn Wins Geilo Sprint, Tops World Cup Stars

The final sprint of the day, in Geilo had the big names: Sturla Holm Laegreid, Eric Perrot, Tommy Giacomel With the wind whipping all afternoon, Botn, with 10 IBU Cup podiums last season, shot clean and skied faster than the World Cup stars, taking a 23:18.7 victory. He called his win, “Crazy, this is the most important race of the season to get to the World Cup team. It is a good start. We think about this race all summer of the training season, so to do it today is great!”

Isak Leknes Frey, second at Loop One last month matched Botn on the range, finishing second, 4.2 seconds back. Perrot gave the two IBU Cup stars a scare, shooting very fast and clean, but the French star could not match their speedy last loops, settling for third16.1 seconds back. Fourth, with two penalties, 25.2 seconds back went to Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen, battling for a World Cup start like Botn and Frey. Herman Dramdal Borge, with one penalty and clean-shooting Joergen Saeter, were fifth and sixth, 26.2 and 27.9 seconds back. 2025 World Cup Total Score Winner Laegreid’s two prone penalties left him in 17th place, 1:11.1 back.

Kirkeeide Wins Geilo Sprint Battle

Maren Kirkeeide, despite two standing penalties, rallied with a fast last loop, winning the Norwegian Season Opener Women’s Sprint in 20:29.4. Kirkeeide, the final starter barely edged second and third place Marit Oeygard and Belgium’s Lotte Lie, .3 and .5 seconds back, who shot clean. Oeygard, second in the IBU Cup Individual here last season led Kirkeeide by 8.8 seconds after standing, but was unable to withstand Kirkeeide’s furious last loop. Aasne Skreed, with one penalty finished fourth, 16.3 seconds back. Three-time Olympic Gold medalist Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia shot clean in fifth place, 17.8 seconds back. Italy’s Dorothea Wierer led after a clean prone stage, but three standing penalties pushed her to sixth, 25.5 seconds back, despite a very fast ski time.

Samuelsson Tops Men at Idre Fjall

Sebastian Samuelsson who said in an interview earlier this week that “my standing shooting is where I improved the most, but we will have to wait and see,” proved himself correct, shooting clean and fast in his 22:30 Swedish Premiere Men’s Sprint victory. Samuelsson, like Hanna earlier was unchallenged. Germans took second, third, and fourth with Philipp Horn second, with one penalty, 39.9 seconds, Simon Kaiser third, 53.6 seconds, Justus Strelow fourth, shooting clean, 59.3 seconds back. Martin Ponsiluoma and Danillo Reithmueller finished fifth and sixth, 1:10.2 and 1:15.1 back.