Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid, starting 68th at the end of the top group cleaned his prone stage for the lead, then leaving standing less than a second behind France’s Emilien Jacquelin sprint around the last loop for a perfectly executed Otepää Men’s 10 km Sprint win in 23:28.5. The clean-shooting victory this afternoon followed just 4 days after last year’s World Cup Total Score winner claimed his first victory of the season, also shooting clean in Sunday’s Kontiolahti Mass Start. The win extends Laegreid’s consecutive podium streak to nine, since the beginning of the Milan/Cortina OWG.

Jacquelin, shooting fast and clean looked like the winner until Laegreid put in his powerful last loop, leaving the French star, 10.7 seconds back in second place. Germany’s Philipp Nawrath shot clean in a season-best third place, 17.8 seconds back his first individual podium since finishing third in the December 2024 Kontiolahti Sprint.

Laegreid’s teammates Isak Leknes Frey shot clean in fourth, 30.3 seconds back, just edging the also perfect Olympic Sprint Gold medalist Quentin Fillon Maillet by .3 seconds. Norway added a third athlete in the top six with Johan-Olav Smoerdal Botn in sixth, with one penalty, 42.4 seconds back.

Photos: IBU/Dmitry Yevenko, Nordic Focus