Norwegian Gold: Johannes Thingnes Boe Wins Men’s 20K Individual

Johannes Thingnes Boe brought Norway its first biathlon Gold medal of these Olympic Winter Games winning the men’s 20K individual, despite two penalties, in 48:03.8. Johannes’ victory was no assured until the closing stages of the competition. Silver medalist Jakov Fak of Slovenia made a late run with clean shooting and a gritty last loop, but finished 5.5 seconds back. Dominik Landertinger of Austria, also shooting clean won the Bronze medal, 14.2 seconds back.

Fourth place went to pursuit Silver medalist Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden, with one penalty, 29.1 seconds back. Martin Fourcade of France, with two penalties was fifth, 42,4 seconds back, while Benjamin Weger of Switzerland, with one penalty was sixth, 48.6 seconds back.

Good Conditions; Fourcade in ControlAfter the women enjoyed a daylight competition, it was back to the darkness and bright lights of nighttime for the men. Yet the conditions remained good, with the temperature dropping below freezing, with the same moderate wind conditions. Although Arnd Peiffer, Lindström, Moravec and Erik Lesser cleaned before him, Fourcade quickly stepped to the top of the standings in the first prone stage with a typically slow, focused tempo to clean the first prone and take the lead.

Clean Shooters DwindleAs usual the first standing took some of those who cleaned the first prone out of the mix. The list of 51 names with a zero was down to less than a dozen rather quickly. However, Fredrik Lindström and Ondřej Moravec both cleaned as did Tarjei. Johannes, trying to make up ground after a first stage penalty, matched them to jump up into the top 6. Fourcade came to standing next. This time, he shot faster but very much in control to remain in the lead. Starter number 51, Samuelsson equaled the French star with his own 5-for-5 to into second after the first two stages, just 8.9 seconds off the leader’s pace. However, Fak, Nelin and Landertinger were lurking not far behind, with their own error-free efforts.

Later Starters Move into ContentionThe second prone stage further dwindled the number of clean shooters, but Lindström and Moravec stayed perfect. Johannes continued his charge, with his second 5-for-5 to move into first position. That was, until the pursuit Gold medalist came in and once again, very unhurriedly closed all five targets. He left very much in control. A short time later, Tarjei became his main contender, moving into second, 29.4 seconds back after a matching clean stage. Numbers 61 Jesper Nelin, 57 Fak and 38 Landertinger surged into contention with clean stages, well after Fourcade and Tarjei shot, moving into second, fourth, and seventh respectively.

Penalty for Johannes; Fak, Samuelsson and Landertinger CleanAs usual, fatigue set in for the last and deciding standing stage. Lindström ended his perfect day with a one-minute penalty as did Moravec and Johannes. Still Johannes was the man at the top of the standings. Lesser cleaned fast and was suddenly back in the mix. Fourcade seemed very collected and confident as he came to the range; then uncharacteristically missed two shots. That opened the door, as he left 41.4 seconds behind Johannes with a 4K loop to go. As the French star was chasing Johannes, Weger, coming back from an early penalty hit all five targets to slip 11 seconds ahead of Fourcade heading out for the last loop. Landertinger then cleaned and was in the lead by 8 seconds. Samuelsson had a penalty but was in the mix, leaving in fourth. Then Fak cleaned, leaving 3.9 seconds behind Landertinger.

Johannes Waits: Landertinger and Fak Surge to PodiumJohannes finished first with his name on top of the standings. Then he waited to see what his rivals would do. Fourcade, after the two penalties, tried to close the gap over that last loop on his Norwegian rival, but to no avail and was in second for a while. The young Norwegian commented, “It was a gift from Martin, because if he only missed one, he would be the winner. But you know, some miss one at time and some miss the last two…We both had to misses today. I was a little faster than him and that is what saved the day for me.”

However, the medal’s battle was on behind him. Landertinger slowed down over the final 4K but held on to move ahead of Fourcade. Samuelsson jumped into the top three with a strong last loop, but Fak, the Vancouver sprint Bronze medalist was still on the course. The Slovenian pushed trying to hold his top spot, sprinted down the last 100 meters, but fell just short of Johannes but well ahead of Landertinger, leaving the Austrian with the Bronze medal and Silver for the Slovenian.