Despite brilliant skiing, the Swedish biathlon star ended up outside the podium. Only Norwegian Johannes Dale-Skjevdal was faster in the race, and after flawless prone shooting, Sebastian Samuelsson had victory within reach.
Then the 28-year-old, who last won individually in the World Cup finals in Oslo this spring, missed two shots.
Cannon feeling
The fine ride looked like it could still lead to a podium finish for a while, but it wasn't quite enough. Samuelsson finished sixth, just under four seconds from third place and 8.8 seconds from victory.
I'm happy to be sixth with two misses, but what can you say? I want to be a winner and if you want that, you have to take your chances better when you have days like this. When it feels this good, I should win by 20 seconds and take it home. It's frustrating at the same time that a bad standing shot can go that far, Samuelsson tells SVT.
Martin Ponsiluoma, also with two errors, was seventh, 12.2 seconds behind and Jesper Nelin was twelfth, 43.1 seconds with one error.
Double Norway
It was a double Norwegian victory: Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen shot full and won ahead of Johannes Dale-Skjevdal (two misses). Frenchman Émilien Jacquelin shot one miss and came third.
Two Swedish exclamation points were Henning Sjökvist and Oscar Andersson. Sjökvist, on the podium in the recent IBU Cup, came in 29th (+1.15) with just one miss and Andersson came in 32nd (+1.17) in his World Cup debut, also with one miss.
Andersson is known for shooting faster than most, and in the standing shooting he proved that the rumor is true. The 23-year-old dusted off the five shots, only hits, in a mind-boggling 17 seconds.
I felt like I was letting it go. But it felt good and controlled. It's clear that it gives you something to do," Andersson tells SVT.
All Swedes, including 47th place Malte Stefansson (+1.33), made it to the 60 who will be allowed to drive Saturday's pursuit start.
