Norway’s Marte Olsbu Roeiseland after a prone penalty recovered with a clean standing stage and a quick last loop to win the Oberhof women’s 7.5 km sprint in 23:30.1. Belarusian Hanna Sola with two penalties and France’s Julia Simon, with one penalty tied for second place, 7.1 seconds back. Simon furiously sprinted the last 1300 meters gaining 6.7 seconds on Sola, resulting in the tie.

On the day after her birthday, Sola’s teammate Dzinara Alimbekava, with two penalties, finished fourth, 22.6 seconds back. Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold of Norway, with one penalty finished fifth 23.1 seconds back while Anais Chevalier-Bouchet of France finished sixth, 26.3 seconds back.

More wintery weather for women

The women’s sprint got the same wintery treatment as the men had three hours earlier, snow maybe just a bit lighter and diminishing, more fog and the continuing wind for their first competition of the New Year. Olsbu Roeiseland hit her first four prone targets before missing the last shot, putting her at a disadvantage should anyone ski as fast and shoot clean. Kristina Reztsova did just that giving her the fastest prone time. Tandrevold and Paulina Fialkova’s five perfect also shots put them ahead of the Yellow Bib. Wierer shot faster than everyone, cleaned and moved into fourth. Alimbekava, starting in the middle of the field cleaned very quickly, just two seconds slower than the Russian. Simon made her podium bid early, quickly closing her five targets, heading to standing 10 seconds from the front.

Olsbu Roeiseland takes control

The Yellow Bib-wearing Olsbu Roeiseland recovered in standing, easily cleaning and taking control of the competition, never seriously challenged after that. Reztsova came to the standing stage, missed three shots, dropping from contention. Tandrevold missed a standing shot, moved to second position 11 seconds behind her teammate. Sola, after two prone penalties, blew away her standing targets, moving from 15th before the stage to third as she left for the last loop. Alimbekava struggled with the wind in standing, racking up two penalties, but her track speed kept her in contention, heading to the finish just 15 seconds back, in third position. Simon came to standing vying for the lead, but picked up a penalty. Still, her track speed moved her to third, just 11.8 seconds back.

Simon sprints to second place tie

Olsbu Roeiseland’s typical fast last loop put her atop the leaderboard, but there were still 101 women still to come, but nothing changed, giving her a win in the first competition of 2022. With 1500 meters to go, Sola was gaining on the Norwegian, moving to second position just 6 seconds back, but was unable to gain any more ground, crossing in second initially. Alimbekava into third in the last loop, with Simon still on the tracks. The French speedster produced her typical “leave everything on the tracks” last loop, flying determinedly down the home stretch to equal Sola’s time, leaving the duo tied for second place. almost 15 seconds faster than Alimbekava.

Sola’s standing stage

Sola’s clean standing stage saved her day. “It was really hard because my standing shooting is always mor problematic than prone shooting and also the weather was not perfect. It was really good and I am happy I did it.”

Photos: IBU/ Christian Manzoni