Martin Ponsiluoma Captures IBU Sprint World Championship Gold
Sweden’s Martin Ponsiluoma shot clean while outskiing all of his more heralded rivals this afternoon at Pokljuka to capture the IBU Men’s 10 km Sprint World Championship in 24:41.1 for his first-ever individual IBU WCH medal, just two days after winning a Bronze medal in the mixed relay France’s Simon Desthieux also shooting clean added a strong last loop to win the Silver medal, 11.2 seconds back for his first-ever individual IBU WCH medal. Desthieux’s teammate Emilien Jacquelin with one penalty won the Bronze medal, 12.9 seconds back.
IBU World Championships Men's 10 km Sprint
IBU World Champion “Hard to Believe”
Ponsiluoma with 98 more men starting after him was not so sure that his clean shooting would keep him in the top spot. Reflecting on the title of IBU World Champion, “It is hard to believe. It just feels amazing. It is hard to say (that I could hold the lead), I knew there were many strong athletes behind me. I was going really early in the field, so it was hard to know.” As far as when he would realize that he was a Champion, the man who was 29th in last season’s IBU WCH added, “Maybe tonight…”
“Like I do in Training”
Regarding his perfect shooting, Ponsiluoma, the first Swedish men’s IBU World Champion since the first Championships in 1958, added, “I had a good feeling all day. I did not think about anything in the shooting, just did like I do in training. That is what you have to do. You cannot think about needing to hit so-and-so. I just did what I had to do.”
Johannes Dale of Norway with one penalty finished fourth, 22.4 seconds back, just .1 seconds faster than his fifth place teammate Johannes Thingnes Boe with two penalties. France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet with one penalty finished sixth, 23.9 seconds back.
Brighter Day; Good Prone Shooting
After a wet mixed relay on Wednesday, the 104 starters today were greeted with much brighter winter conditions: -8C, peeks of blue sky coming in between the passing clouds and snow flurries and a moderate 8 km/hr. wind on the shooting range. Good shooting prevailed. Number six Ponsiluoma started with a quick clean prone stage to move to the top of the standings for the first time. Sturla Holm Laegreid and Tarjei Boe also dropped all five targets but both were slower than their Swedish rival. Sebastian Samuelsson came to the prone stage and promptly moved to the top of the leaderboard, three seconds faster than his teammate. Johannes was the fastest into the range but missed two shots, putting him at a big disadvantage, while just after Jacquelin also missed a shot. Halfway through the field, Latypov with five fast shots moved to the top of the prone standings, while Dale and Desthieux also cleaned to move into the top five.
Ponsiluoma Leads
Ponsiluoma was the second man to go perfect for the day with a solid standing stage, going out in the top spot. Laegreid matched, but left the stadium nine seconds slower than Ponsiluoma. Tarjei also missed a shot to fall 20 seconds off the leading pace. After missing a prone shot, Fillon Maillet blew through his standing targets to leave in fourth, 24 seconds back. Samuelsson missed a standing shot, dropping from the lead while the Yellow Bib shot very fast and clean to move to 25 seconds back with 3.3 km to go. Jacquelin with brilliant standing stage, moved into second position, just 8.8 seconds behind Ponsiluoma. Latypov missed a shot but was in the medal hunt. 11.8 seconds back but faded out of contention in the last loop. Dale also missed a shot, dropping to ninth, while Desthieux also closed all five standing targets, leaving just 10 seconds back.
Battle for Second and Third
The last loop was a battle for the second and third spots on the podium as Ponsiluoma continued his big day with a strong last loop to cross in the top spot and never challenged after that. Fillon Maillet had a steady last loop gaining just over a half second to move up. Compared to most of his rivals, Johannes flew around the last loop, moving from seventh after standing to sixth and fifth at the last splits, then jumping into second for a moment. Jacquelin continued his trek to the podium staying ahead of Johannes through the last 3.3 km to also move to the second spot for a few minutes. Dale and Desthieux were both flying on the last loop, with the young Norwegian getting ahead of the Yellow Bib by the finish. However, Desthieux was not to be outdone, sprinting hard into the stadium he crossed the line 1.7 seconds faster than his teammate Jacquelin for second place, giving France the two spots below Ponsiluoma.
Desthieux’s Day “would be great”
Desthieux with his first individual podium of the season felt it was going to be his day when he got up in this morning. “It feels fantastic. I yearned for that for a long time. It is fantastic to get this podium today, because my beginning of the season was tough. I rest in the last weeks…worked very hard to be at my best at these Championships… The last loop was crazy, I did everything to be better in every part of the track…Today was a great day for me. When I woke up, I knew this day would be great. You never know but some days are like that. I did my best biathlon race in a long time!”
Jacquelin Happy with Third; Focused on Pursuit
Jacquelin, although topped by his teammate was pumped with his Bronze medal and already focused on the upcoming pursuit. “I am super satisfied. This year has been really tough for me; I learned a lot. I wanted to be in the top five or podium more than two times, but I learned and today made this great race. Third place in the sprint is a great one. I am happy. I do not know if this is great or not but I am already focused on Sunday’s pursuit. That is my goal since one year; I am happy to be third and trying to be better.
Photos: IBU/Christian Manzoni
Inscrivez-vous à notre newsletter
Suivez-nous sur :
