Sweden’s Hanna Oeberg proved to be the fastest on skis as well as the range this afternoon, winning the Oslo Holmenkollen Women’s 7.5 km Sprint in 20:20.4. Hanna, a mere .1 seconds behind France’s Julia Simon after prone skied into the lead after that, speedily demolishing her standing targets, and skiing a solid last loop for the clean-shooting victory, her third sprint win of the season.

Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi shot as quickly and clean as Hanna, finishing second, 5.3 seconds back. Hanna’s sister Elvira shot clean in third place, 20.1 seconds back, sharing the podium with her sister for the seventh time in their careers and the second time this season.

“Amazing team effort”

Hanna’s win tied her with Elvira for family wins with fourteen apiece. “We had a fight over the winter, so this is cool. Today we had an amazing team effort to share the podium with Elvira. I think we have never done this kind of results as a team (1.3, 7, 8, 9). We knew about (the chance of winning) Nations Cup before, so we made it good under pressure.”

“Swedish team likes it here in Holmenkollen”

Regarding breaking the family tie for wins, “We will see. We have two chances left this weekend so we will try our best for sure; the Swedish team likes it here in Holmenkollen!”

Simon, with one penalty finished fourth, 37.9 seconds back. Norway’s Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold with one penalty finished in a season-best fifth place. 51.3 seconds back.

Total Score Crystal Globe to Jeanmonnot

Simon’s teammate Lou Jeanmonnot, after earlier securing the World Cup Sprint and Individual Scores finished sixth, with one penalty 52 seconds back. Jeanmonnot’s sixth place sealed the World Cup Total Score Crystal Globe for the 27-year-old French star, making up for the disappointing fall that probably cost her the title last year at this same venue. Jeanmonnot’s win follows two seasons of finishing second in the Total Score behind Germany’s Franziska Preuss and Vittozzi.

Sweden Wins Women’s Nations Cup

Anna Magnusson, Anna-Karin Heijdenberg, and Linn Gestblom’s seventh, eighth, and ninth gave Sweden five women in the top 10 for the first time ever while securing the World Cup Nations Cup for the first time ever with 6956 points to France’s 6920.

Short-sleeve Day

After two foggy days, short-sleeve weather arrived with a windless, sunny 10-degree day. Simon set the bar with the fastest time through the first prone stage. Vittozzi cleaned with the second fastest time, with Elvira following just .4 slower than Simon, but Hanna upped the ante with very fast stage clean stage, .1 seconds behind her French rival.

Hanna Cleans Standing, Securing Victory

Vittozzi took a 25-second lead with a perfect standing stage. Elvira matched, leaving just a second behind the Italian. Hanna’s clean stage put her 7 seconds up on Vittozzi.

Vittozzi continued her excellent day, speeding around the last loop, moving briefly into first. Elvira faded but finished ahead of Simon. Hanna continued her march to victory, finishing five seconds ahead of Vittozzi with Elvira third.

Photos: IBU/Nordnes, Nordic Focus