Olsbu Roeiseland kept the momentum of powerful performances from the BMW IBU World Championships Oberhof 2023 as she led from start to finish, clocking the fourth quickest course time and a second fastest range time, collecting her career-seventh Sprint win. She is the sixth different Sprint winner in 2022/2023, as no woman achieved two victories in the World cup in the Sprint this season.
“It has been quite a year, a long road to here. It feels so good to win again. I am in love with the crowd here. I had my first World cup win and competed at the IBU Y&J World Championships here. The atmosphere is so loud you can’t hear yourself,” said Olsbu Roeiseland, who earned her first-ever World cup win in the Sprint of Nove Mesto na Morave in 2018/2019.
Tandrevold was in a no-compromise mood as she scored second fastest course time behind Anamarija Lampič. She struggled in the standing shooting in Oberhof 2023, but her confidence came storming back with the Mass start Silver. One miss in the prone didn’t disturb her approach to the standing stage.
Chevalier-Bouchet had the best Sprint performance of the 2022/2023 season. She missed once in the prone but increased her ski speed from lap to lap for her first Sprint podium of the season.
Dorothea Wierer was challenging for the win until the last shot and had to ski one penalty loop. Wierer finished in fourth place, 35.4 seconds behind the winner from Norway. Vanesa Voigt had her finest Sprint day of the winter. She shot 10/10 and finished fifth, 36.7 behind Olsbu Roeiseland and 1.8 seconds ahead of the Sprint World champion Denise Herrmann-Wick.
After a C-19 related break following the BMW IBU World Championships Oberhof 2023, the Total Score leader Julia Simon returned in action in Nove Mesto. Simon dug deep into her energy reserves to fight back in the second and third lap and finished in the Top 10. She extended her lead over Elvira Oeberg, who lacked her usual ski speed and had a poor shooting day with three misses in the prone. Simon finished ninth and added 32 points to her Total Score tally. She has 843 points before tomorrow’s Pursuit. Oeberg finished outside Top 40 and missed to win any points. Simon now has 108 points lead over Oeberg.
With six individual competitions - and 540 World cup points available - to go, Lisa Vittozzi, Dorothea Wierer, and Herrmann-Wick can still challenge for the Total Score with their path to the very top relatively narrow. Vittozzi trails Simon by 168, Wierer by 190, and Herrmann-Wick by 215 points.
Photo: IBU/C. Manzoni; J. Svoboda