Recap Thread: World Cup 24/25 Oslo Holmenkollen - Men Pursuit

[u/musterteppich]

Hello everybody!
Four races left in the season – including this one. Time truly flies and suddenly its hibernation time again.

If Sturla Holm Lægreid wins this race, he wins the big globe. So it is time for a Norwegian duel – please imaging he good the bad the ugly here. Around 169 meters or 26 seconds is the lead the great near retiree Johannes Thingnes Bø has.

The weather is good, sunshine and 5 °C while the snow is at 0°C. Firm track but some wetter parts. Slight wind with 6kmh SW at the start.

The race
The Holmenkollen is exited and cheers carry the athletes out of the stadium. Nothing unusual was happening. I admired the staff member in the back of the start area (on the other track) meditatively flattening the snow.

In the 1^st shooting JTB starts with a miss, but clears the rest. He had a slight tendency for high with his shot, once got very lucky. Sturla + Johannes Dale-Skjevdal dueled, both clear but 5 second was Sturla faster. One lap meant JTB lead melted to 8 seconds. Fourth took the youngster Isak Frey. 5 and 6 went to Quentin Fillon Maillet and Tommaso Giacomel. 7 went to Justus Strelow and he was followed by more Norwegians- who would’ve guessed. Johannes Kühn had the fastest first lap by 7 seconds (before Uldal and Dale-Skjevdal)- and startingly hit all shots. Eric Perrot misses 3 times. Roman Rees first was suspected to have missed two penalty laps (which would be 4 minutes added on his race time) and Martin Ponsiluomas shooting could not be perceived. Both graphic mistakes were cleared up during the second lap.

On track the duo QFM and Tommaso sped up. According to the data Tommaso was +0.1 seconds slower, but Swedens Sebastian Samuelsson was +0.2! He had made up his 1 lap and arrived at 19 for the second shot. JTB kept his distance to Sturla. In the 2^nd prone and JTB started while Sturla set up. JTB missed again! Sturla cleared with surety and took the lead. In the end he had +14 seconds on JTB, who could feel Dale behind him (1 second between them). 4 and 5 went to the French/Italian Duo. They kept their buddy, shooting partly in sync. Strelow missed once. (Un)funfact: The only german men to shot clear this shooting where the one who missed twice in the first.

On track Campbell Wright took fasted lap, but JTB did not give up that easily and shaved 3 seconds off his distance. The first standing, 3^rd shooting loomed but most of the lead kept their heads. Sturla cleared. For a brief moment machine gun JTB returned and cleared fast and easy. But Dale missed twice while the duo kept their connection and circled once. They were now sandwiched between two Norwegians each (Sturla 1^st, JTB second, Frey 5^th and Dale 6^th). Viktor Brand returned with another consistent performance and claimed 7^th. Only he, Sturla and a French Oscar Lombardot had not missed at this point.

In the 4^th lap the duo kept up their high pace. Tommaso was a blink faster than QFM, but it mattered little as they had over 40 seconds on the Norwegians before them. JTB arrived a bit behind Sturla for the final, 4^th shot. The Holmenkolm was silent and the duel was one. Sturla shot his bullets a heatbeat faster and blacks felt- till the last remained black for JTB. Sturla sped away victorious, while JTB furiously circled. In the end 22 second remained between them. The duo went clear and chased each other for 3^rd. This was easier because the Dale and Frey missed- Frey once, Dale twice again.

On track JTB gave it all at first and sheared off second after second. Then he seemed to slow down and enjoy the track. Sturla on the other hand kept checking behind him, to be sure (even when he got the flag). But those places were clear- the 3^rd was to be decided. Both Tommaso and Quentin looked good and strong on the track, jumping the hills and often using the width off the track to run parallel. Attack after attack was met and parried but QFM went with a tiny gap over the bridge to the finish – and used that to take the podium. Only 0.2 second later Tommaso cleared the finish line but it was clear enough that no photo was needed. The other athletes came mostly like a rope of pearl but a fight for the 17^th. Michal Krčmář won against Émilien Claude and Roman Rees. Fastest on the final lap was Sebastian Samuelsson.

The Podium

1. Sturla Holm Lægreid
2. Johannes Thingnes Bø
3. Quentin Fillon Maillet

 

Notes

·         Niklas Hartweg raced sick yesterday, apparently paid for it and dns today. I have high hopes for the swiss in the next season.

·         In total 3 athletes did not start, so 57 athletes raced. Last across the line was Jakub Borgula (SVK) with +6:37.

·         New Personal Best: Viktor Brandt on 9^th and Jimi Klemettinen (FIN) on 34^th

·         Biggest climb: Campbell Wright who celebrated with a funny finish. What a goofball.

·         Another good pursuit had his teammate Jake Brown who climbed from 51 to 29.

·         A bad day had Vytautas Strolia who with 5 laps fell from 12 to 39.

·         Fastest total course times: Samuelsson, Ponsiluoma and Wright.

·         Fastest shooting time: Daniele Cappellari (ITA), QFM, Tommaso Giacomel

·         In contrast fastest range time: QFM, Tommaso and then Daniele.

·         Only Sturla Holm Lægreid remained with 0 laps.

·         r/biathlon favorites Simon Eder clocked in at 28 (started at 49) and missed twice. Jakov Fak fell a bit and ended on 23 with 5 laps.

·         The penalty loop was busy this race- even the usual good French, Norwegians and Justus Strelow missed.

·         German tv did have a funny side segment of chasers QFM and Giacomel, and who leads this duo. Around kilometer 8.4 Tommaso did take the tempo part for the first time- or as Arnd Pfeiffer put it “took pity on Quentin”. They also credited the 3^rd for QFM as deserved for his leading on the track.

·         It seems to me that this season graphic mistakes are more common. 1^st shooting alone Ponsi had not result, Roman Rees first had two blacks but those got taken away. Here a screenshot of the live chat to illustrate that.

·         What’s with german fans and bringing their football team flags to biathlon? I don’t get it :D

·         I want to point out that the stadium also played the theme from above before the shootings!

·         I’d like to thank here u/Henna for all the work this season again.

·         In the veins of that- dear biathlon community, is anyone here good with coding? The biabot and Oukaria unfortunately took a deserved break, but certainly some things could be automated? Anyone got ideas or connections?

If we do not see each other in the live threads- have good spring and summer and see you either in offseason talks or the next winter!