“Plan worked out perfectly”

The 2023 IBU Cup Total Score winner won his first individual Gold medal, just 24 hours after taking Gold with Norway’s World Champion Relay team. Sporting a big smile, he explained his strategy in the last loop after saying winning, “Feels great. I saved my power in the first loops. I was really tactical the whole time. I knew this was the World Championships; the medals will be rewarded in the last loop. My focus was to save energy and have a good shooting. The plan worked perfectly. In the end I felt I had a lot of power. But I knew Johannes was coming, so I did not wait until the sprint. I had to push earlier than the plan, but it worked out perfectly.”

Great way to end Championships career”

Laegreid, with two penalties finished 12.4 seconds back. JT, in his final IBU World Championships had four penalties, 12.7 seconds back, winning his fifth medal in Lenzerheide. He called the competitions, “an amazing Championships. The weather has been so nice for two weeks here. We’ve had ups and downs here in the team. For me, having three out of four individual medals and two in relays and five in total is a great way to end the Championships career.”

The USA’s Campbell Wright, with two penalties, finished fourth, 31.4 seconds back. Sweden’s Martin Ponsiluoma with four penalties finished fifth, 41.9 seconds back. Italy’s Tommaso Giacomel, also with four penalties, finished sixth, 44.6 seconds back.

Conditions similar to the women’s prevailed in the final competition of these Championships. Vebjoern Soerum, Niklas Hartweg and Lukas Hofer cleaned the first prone, leading 8 others with a perfect first stage out of the stadium. JT picked up a penalty, 15 seconds back but was in front by the second prone.

The defending champion missed a second shot in the second prone. Emilien Jacquelin, Ponsiluoma and Emilien Claude cleaned after first-stage penalties, moving into the top three spots.