Norway Dominates in Men’s Relay Win

Norway’s third and anchor legs Johannes Thingnes Boe and Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen dominated the last half of this afternoon’s Oestersund Men’s 4 X 7.5 km Relay, bringing the Norwegians, with Endre Stroemsheim and Tarjei Boe leading off, a 1:14:28.4 victory, using seven spare rounds. JT set the bar with a blazing loop into his standing stage, stretching to a 38.5-second lead before tagging Christiansen, who shot pressure-free despite missing his last standing shot.

“Where the relay team left off last season”

Christiansen enjoyed anchoring today’s win as much as he did here last March. “This is where the relay team left off last season with a win if I remember correctly. Of course, I should have made that last shot to make it a perfect last leg. But I guess my head was already planning the victory celebration, so I guess the viewers were a little bit disappointed but I think in the end they were happy!”

“It was all normal!”

He admitted the JT Boe keyed the win, as usual. “It was quite close from the start. Germany despite missing both Strelow and Rees were up there. Actually, I was a bit prepared to maybe ski out with a couple of other teams. But you know, we have one of the three GOATS (JT Boe) as our third leg so he made the job he usually does and I got the gap. So, it was all normal!”

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France, buoyed by Quentin Fillon’s clean standing stage finished second, with eleven spares, 20.6 seconds back. Germany, substituting David Zobel and Johannes Kuehn for Justus Strelow and Roman Rees finished third with a penalty and sixteen spares, 50.5 seconds back.

After yesterday’s snowy women’s competition,-12C, virtually windless conditions greeted the twenty-one teams in the first men’s relay of the season. Switzerland’s Sebastian Stalder led the pack out of standing in the first leg, exchanging first, .1 seconds before France’s Emilien Jacquelin.

Tarjei started leg two 16.7 seconds back. Simon Eder’s perfect shooting gave Austria leads after both stages. Halfway through their final loop, Tarjei with Philipp Nawrath on his shoulder took control, tagging JT and Benedikt Doll almost simultaneously.

JT Opens Gap

They shot side-by-side in prone but JT left a step ahead of Doll. Felix Leitner cleaned to stay ahead of France’s Fabien Claude. JT opened a gap before standing, cleaned in five fast shots, put down the hammer, tagging Christiansen with a 38.5-second lead over Johannes Kuehn and Quentin Fillon Maillet. Pressure-free, Christiansen cleaned prone, extending his lead to 59.8 seconds. Making things slightly interesting, Christiansen missed his last shot, leaving with a 43-second margin over Fillon Maillet in second while Kuehn went to the penalty loop.

BMW IBU World Cup 1 Oestersund Men's Relay

Austria, with the best shooting performance of the day, two spare rounds, finished fourth, 1:44.5 back, edging Italy in fifth by .5 seconds, with sixteen spares. Sweden finished sixth, 2:17.9 back with two penalties and sixteen spares.

Photos: IBU/ Per Danielsson, Nordic Focus

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