Lea Rothschopf of Austria and Leonhard Pfund of Germany won the Pursuit at the IBU Cup in Sjusjoen, Norway. For both, it was a career-first individual IBU Cup win.

Last shooting brings Rothschopf a precious win

Rothschopf, fourth after the Sprint and carrying strong positive momentum in recent weeks, was fourth after the first shooting, seventh after the second, and fourth again after the third. She then took control of the tightly contested race with a measured cadence and five closed targets at the final shooting. With an 18/20 shooting score, Rothschopf won in 31:31.5. Emma Nilsson of Sweden, starting with bib 13, cleared all 20 targets and clocked the fastest Pursuit time to finish second, 10.2 seconds behind. Sophie Chauveau of France, with 17/20, finished third, 19.2 seconds behind the winner.

Paula Botet of France, 17th in today’s Pursuit, stayed atop the Total Score standings with 944 points. Chauveau is second with 875 points.

Pfund atop the German podium

Ninth after the Sprint, Pfund cleared all 10 targets in the prone and entered the second half of the Pursuit in second place, 6.1 seconds behind his teammate Franz Schaser. Pfund had his only miss in the first standing shooting, where he nevertheless took control of the race, which he won in 32:11.1. He also clocked the fastest Pursuit time. His teammates Simon Kaiser (seventh after the Sprint) and Roman Rees (sixth after the Sprint) finished second and third. Kaiser shot 18/20 and finished 4.9 seconds behind Pfund, while Rees cleared all 20 targets and was 6.3 seconds back.

Gaetan Paturel leads the Total Score standings with 678 points, just two points ahead of Damien Levet.

Photo: M. Nordnes / IBU Photo Pool