It was Thingnes Bø's second victory in as many days in Austrian Hochfilzen, after also winning Friday's sprint.
The pursuit got a dramatic finish.
A trio of skiers – Thingnes Bø, Émilien Jacquelin, and Sturla Holm Lægreid – came together to the last shooting, and skied from there with each their own penalty in the back, still side by side.
Trode on the competitor
On the final lap, Lægreid was the first to give up, and it looked like it would be a nerve-wracking duel between Jacquelin and Bø. But on an uphill, Bø accidentally trod on Jacquelin's ski, the Frenchman fell, and had to watch Johannes Thingnes Bø disappear into the distance.
He probably thought he would get away from me and Sturla. But at the end of the hill, he started to wobble, I noticed that he became stunned. So I went past and then he tried to cut in front, but I was already there, so I trod on his ski, says Johannes Thingnes Bø to SVT.
So he can only blame himself there.
Émilien Jacquelin instead had to sprint against Lægreid for second place, and won that fight.
Johannes Thingnes Bø simultaneously celebrated his 87th victory in World Cup contexts. With that, he passed a Swedish alpine icon, Ingemar Stenmark, who stopped at 86. However, it should be said that in biathlon, World Championship gold medals (up to and including the 2021 World Championship) and Olympic gold medals (up to and including the 2010 Olympic Games) were previously counted as World Cup victories – which was not the case in alpine skiing.
Samuelsson fourth
Thingnes Bø is also approaching the all-time greatest biathlete, his compatriot Ole Einar Bjørndalen, who collected 95 victories during his career.
Sebastian Samuelsson went out as sixth and made a long fight for the podium places, but eventually fell back on the shooting. After two penalties in the third shooting, standing, he lost contact with the lead. It ended with three penalties for Samuelsson, who still managed to climb to a fourth place, just over 40 seconds from the podium.
I did two good rounds here in Hochfilzen. This is not my favorite place, so sixth and fourth, I should be satisfied with. But of course, I would have liked to be on the podium, says Samuelsson to SVT.
