A great weekend for Elvira Öberg, Perrot and Laegreid – Kontiolahti World Cup recap

Eric Perrot and Sturla Holm Laegreid dominated the men’s events, while Elvira Öberg led the way among the women during the World Cup weekend in Kontiolahti, Finland. While Perrot’s lead in the overall standings is now almost impossible to catch, Öberg made a spectacular start to closing the gap to Lou Jeanmonnot, who struggled during the weekend.

The weekend in Finland was also the first one without Dorothea Wierer and Franziska Preuss in the field. Their absence was clearly felt by both the Italian and German teams, and replacing them will likely take time for both nations. One of the big questions of the weekend was whether Perrot and Jeanmonnot could effectively decide the overall World Cup battle, leaving only the mathematical confirmation of their titles for later.

Women

Öberg’s perfect shooting brings victory

The final individual start race of the season was held in Kontiolahti. The race started strongly for Sweden’s Heijdenberg, who started with bib number 2 and led the field for quite a while. She was first overtaken by Paulina Fialkova, who also spent a long time in the lead before the two Öberg sisters, Julia Simon and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet arrived to take the top four positions.

During the second shooting stage, both French athletes among the leaders made mistakes, allowing Fialkova to move into a podium position. However, her third shooting was not perfect either, and she was replaced in the top three by Janina Hettich-Walz.

At the final shooting stage, only one of the Öberg sisters managed to shoot clean – Elvira Öberg – which made her victory almost inevitable. Behind her, Tereza Voborníková fought hard for a podium position, but both Fialkova and Hanna Öberg overtook her in the final lap, leaving the Czech athlete in fourth place.

Hanna Öberg finished just behind her sister, while Fialkova secured her first podium finish in more than a year. Interestingly, the Slovak athlete has now reached eleven podium finishes in her career but has never managed to win a race.

Justine Braisaz-Bouchet continued her difficult run of form, missing six shots and finishing only 75th. Maren Kirkeeide also delivered her worst performance of the season, finishing 61st without scoring points. Lou Jeanmonnot also recorded her worst result of the season, finishing 35th with four misses. After the race it became certain that Jeanmonnot had won the Individual small crystal globe, finishing two points ahead of Anna Magnusson in the standings.

Simon once again the best in a tense battle

The first lap of the mass start did not unfold as expected. Led by Braisaz-Bouchet, four athletes broke away from the field early and gained several seconds. However, only Elvira Öberg managed to turn this into a real advantage, as Braisaz-Bouchet, Julia Simon and Hanna Öberg all missed in the first shooting. The Swedish athlete therefore began the second lap with an advantage of around eleven seconds. She extended this gap further and by the end of the lap Jeanmonnot was already 15 seconds behind.

Elvira Öberg was perfect in the shooting range but slightly slower there, which allowed Julia Simon to close the gap to 13 seconds. However, Öberg increased her advantage again and by the end of the lap she was more than 20 seconds ahead. During the standing shooting stage Elvira Öberg missed, allowing Simon to take the lead. The Swedish athlete managed to erase her ten-second deficit and the two arrived together for the final shooting. In the decisive moment Simon once again kept her composure under pressure, while Öberg missed. The French athlete therefore won the race comfortably.

In the final lap Fichtner, Magnusson and Elvira Öberg battled for the remaining podium places. The German athlete could not keep up with the two Swedes and finished fourth. Elvira Öberg finished second while Magnusson returned to the podium after a long time. For the overall World Cup leader Jeanmonnot the race was again disappointing, finishing only 16th after three misses.

Excellent Swedish relay victory

Most nations competed with their strongest possible line-ups in the relay. For Germany the race was effectively over very early. Fichtner failed to use all of her bullets during the first shooting stage, which resulted in a two-minute penalty. Combined with a penalty loop, the German relay team was suddenly almost three minutes behind.

After the second shooting stage the three main contenders were leading the race. Although Sweden was the fastest, the time gaps remained small. During the second leg the French team caught up with the Swedish-Norwegian pair while the other teams began to fall behind. Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold delivered her best relay performance of the season.At the exchange the three leading teams already had more than a 40-second advantage over the rest of the field.

The fifth shooting stage brought a major change. Hanna Öberg shot cleanly, while Michelon and Knotten needed two and three spare rounds respectively. Sweden’s lead grew to around 20 seconds. During the standing shooting stage Norway dropped out of the battle for victory after Knotten had to ski a penalty loop, leaving them almost one and a half minutes behind. On the final leg Elvira Öberg was significantly faster on the tracks than Julia Simon, and the two spare rounds she needed during the shooting did not prevent Sweden from securing the win.

Kirkeeide managed to bring Norway back to third place, confirming the expected hierarchy. Germany finished second-to-last, more than six minutes behind the winners. France eventually won the women’s relay standings, finishing just five points ahead of Sweden.

Interestingly, according to the statistics I found, the German women’s biathlon relay had never finished this far back in a World Cup, Olympic or World Championship relay race. This would still have been true even without the two-minute penalty. For Italy, the absence of Dorothea Wierer was clearly visible. Her replacement Trabucchi had to ski two penalty loops. With Lisa Vittozzi on the final leg the Italians eventually finished 10th.

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Men

Dominant victory for Perrot

The men’s individual race started strongly as athletes kept delivering clean shooting series. After the first shooting stage the top 44 athletes had all shot clean. Among those who missed, Emilien Jacquelin was the best with about one minute of deficit. However, after the second shooting the field spread out significantly.

Eric Perrot was leading, and only Sturla Holm Laegreid remained within ten seconds. Vetle Christiansen in third place was already more than twenty seconds behind. The two Norwegians managed to close the gap slightly but never overtook the Frenchman. After the final shooting Perrot still held an 11-second lead.

In the final lap Perrot pushed an extremely strong pace and eventually won by half a minute ahead of Laegreid. Christiansen finished third nearly 50 seconds behind, while Lukas Hofer in fourth place crossed the line more than a minute behind.

The time gaps were enormous: Johannes Nawrath in fifth place was already more than two minutes behind, and only the top eight finished within three minutes. Perrot comfortably secured the Individual small crystal globe, finishing 70 points ahead of Botn in the standings.

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Laegreid’s impressive streak continues

In the mass start the field remained largely together except for Norway’s Frey, who crashed during the first lap and had to change his rifle, effectively ruining his race. Most of the field shot clean in the first shooting stage, while Frey missed four shots and after four penalty loops he was already two minutes behind.

After the second shooting the French athletes led the race: Jacquelin, Perrot and Fabien Claude formed the top three. Jacquelin managed to maintain the lead until the third shooting but then missed twice. Behind him Perrot, Laegreid and Claude all shot clean, meaning the three of them started the penultimate lap together.

Perrot pushed the pace strongly and Laegreid was able to follow, while Claude dropped back. At the final shooting Perrot missed but Laegreid did not, which made the Norwegian’s victory inevitable. Fabien Claude also missed twice and lost his chance for a podium finish.

Among the chasers, Christiansen shot clean and moved into third place with a comfortable gap behind the leaders. The top three positions did not change afterwards, but Botn produced an impressive final lap to move from seventh to fourth place.

Norwegian comeback

Just like in the women’s relay, one of the major nations found itself in trouble early. Sweden’s starting athlete Brandt had to ski a penalty loop after the prone shooting, which dropped Sweden to last place.

Dale delivered a very strong final lap on the first leg and Norway had a 13-second lead at the exchange. However, this advantage did not last long. Botn needed three spare rounds during the prone shooting and Norway fell half a minute behind the leading French team. By the halfway point the French, Finnish, Italian and German teams were leading the race.

Jacquelin changed the dynamic of the race completely, dropping all of his rivals. By the fifth shooting stage Laegreid was the closest chaser in second place. At the fifth shooting Germany’s Pfund had to ski two penalty loops, dropping the team to 12th place. Jacquelin was incredibly fast and accurate on the range, extending his lead to almost 30 seconds. After another perfect standing shooting stage the French team had a 40-second lead over Norway at the exchange, with Italy in third about a minute behind.

The seventh shooting stage turned the race upside down. The French lead almost disappeared, while Italy had to ski three penalty loops and dropped out of the top ten. The final shooting saw the French and Norwegian teams arrive together. Christiansen shot clean while Fillon Maillet missed, giving Norway the relay victory after a dramatic comeback.

American athlete Wright also missed, leaving Finland and a strongly recovering Swedish team to fight for third place in the final lap. Sebastian Samuelsson proved too strong and Sweden secured third place after having been as low as 22nd earlier in the race.

Norway also won the men’s relay standings ahead of France.

Before the final two weekends

Before the Finnish weekend Jeanmonnot had a large lead in the overall standings and had the opportunity to make the final two rounds a mere formality. Her advantage was more than 200 points. However, she failed to extend it and instead saw it shrink significantly. Neither the individual nor the mass start went well, and she collected only 31 points from those two races.

Suvi Minkkinen reduced the gap to 176 points despite not having her strongest weekend either. The Swedish athletes, however, delivered extremely strong performances. Magnusson also reduced her deficit to under 200 points. The biggest comeback came from Elvira Öberg. Before the weekend she was 342 points behind Jeanmonnot, but that gap has now been reduced to 208.

It is interesting how inconsistent Öberg’s season has been. From just four races – two in Oberhof and two in Kontiolahti – she collected 255 points, nearly 40% of her total. The big question is what form the French leader will show in the upcoming races. Jeanmonnot will definitely need stronger performances, as it is difficult to imagine that at least one of the three Swedish athletes will not score major points again next weekend.

The sprint race in Otepää, Estonia, could be crucial. A strong result there would likely secure her position, but if she struggles again her lead could shrink by another 50–60 points, potentially making the final weekend unexpectedly close.

In the men’s standings the battle was almost decided even before the weekend when Tommaso Giacomel could not compete in Finland. Perrot removed any remaining doubts by finishing first and second. His lead now exceeds 200 points, meaning he could mathematically secure the overall title already next weekend. Especially since Samuelsson, currently behind Giacomel, trails by 276 points.

Laegreid also continued the form he showed at the Olympics, reaching the podium in six consecutive races. If he keeps this level he could easily finish second in the overall standings. Interestingly, the same three athletes stood on the podium in both races – something that had not happened this season before.

Weekend highlights

The best athlete of the weekend was clearly Elvira Öberg: a race win, a second place individually and a strong relay performance. The big question remains where this level was during the Olympics. The positive surprise of the weekend was Tereza Voborníková, who managed to carry her Olympic momentum into the World Cup and once again delivered strong races. The negative surprise was Maren Kirkeeide, who scored very few points and made many mistakes throughout the weekend.

Positive surprise of the weekend: Tereza Voborníková
Negative surprise of the weekend: Maren Kirkeeide
Athlete of the weekend: Elvira Öberg

Next week the World Cup continues in Otepää, Estonia with sprint, pursuit, mixed relay and single mixed relay races.