Roman Rees, Justus Strelow 1-2 in Oestersund 20 km

Germany’s Roman Rees outdueled teammate Justus Strelow in the latter stages of this afternoon’s Oestersund Men’s 20 km Individual, taking his first-ever BMW IBU World Cup victory in 51:27.2 with a single penalty. Rees was only five seconds ahead of his teammate after the last standing stage, but flew around the last 4 km loop to finish 12.1 seconds up. Strelow’s second place and first-ever podium gave Germany a 1-2 finish after Franziska Preuss and Vaness Voigt went 2-3 in the earlier women’s 15 km Individual.

Rees, "Not as exhausted as I expected”

Rees was surprised and not very tired after his victory. “It feels incredible. I am still not sure that this is really true. It is a really, really big surprise for myself. I think for everyone else as well, because it did not feel like a really special race for me. Typical of Oestersund, it is hard to do the last standing shooting stable. I wanted to go for a clean shooting. Then I left the range and was kind of not disappointed, but I thought, ‘what a shame, just one miss so often in the last shooting.’"

"It is really hard here. I think a lot of other guys missed which was my luck today. Then I knew I would go the last lap as I did before; I felt stable on my skis… It is still unbelievable because I am not that exhausted as I expected when I got a win!”

BMW IBU World Cup 1 Oestersund Men's 20 km Individual

Defending World Cup Total Score titlist Johannes Thingnes Boe, with two penalties finished third, with two penalties, 25 seconds back, surrendering the Yellow Bib for next Saturday’s sprint to Rees.

Latvia’s Andrejs Rastorgujevs, with one penalty finished fourth, 29.1 seconds back, .2 second ahead of fifth place Sebastian Stalder, also with one penalty. Norway’s Endre Stroemsheim, with one penalty was sixth, 30.3 seconds back.

Victory and Yellow Bib

Rees’ win came under good conditions with light winds and moderate -6C temperature. Despite this, only 10th place Felix Leitner managed to shoot clean. Rees made it through the first three stages unscathed, taking the lead after the second prone stage. From that point he led, with Strelow chasing from behind. Rees solidified his lead at the 18.8 km split, 13.8 seconds up, going onto his first-ever victory, his first Yellow Bib and a 1-2 podium finish for Germany.

Strelow and JT Climb Back to Podium

Strelow fell 1:20 back to 17th position after his first standing stage penalty. From there, he climbed to ninth and second with consecutive clean stages to close the competition but was no match for his teammate, unable to gain any time in the last loop.

JT, like Strelow pulled himself out of deficits after missed targets in the second and third stages. The Norwegian flashed his usual track speed, especially in the last loop to grab the last spot on the podium.

Photos: IBU/Per Danielsson, Nordic Focus

Share this article