The victory was his first individual one since the premiere last season – when he won the pursuit in Östersund.
I've been thinking about it for the past week, that I've won at least one every season since I took my first victory in 2020. But so far this season, I've been without. So it feels really cool to win, says Sebastian Samuelsson to SVT.
And that's how the race went. After the prone shooting, I got to do my own race and fight against myself on the track and on the range. And get to the standing shooting, which I've had so damn hard with.
Was nervous
When the others started to miss, Samuelsson could pull away in his own majesty and he had the luxury of missing one shot in the last shooting and still win.
I heard about it after the third shooting, but I tried to think away those thoughts. I was nervous before the last one, but I felt secure anyway.
Samuelsson won with a 26.4-second margin ahead of the Italian Tommaso Giacomel and 38.7 seconds ahead of the Norwegian giant Johannes Thingnes Bø. This after starting as eleventh, 46 seconds behind the Frenchman Emilien Jacquelin who won the sprint.
There's something special about Sebastian Samuelsson and the pursuit. He took his first major medal in the pursuit, Olympic silver in Pyeongchang 2018. He became second also at the World Championship 2021 and third at the World Championship 2023. In total, he has ten podium places, including three victories, in the pursuit in championships and the World Cup.
Late form
Samuelsson started the season strongly, but then got sick at Christmas. And then also before the World Championship, which didn't go as he had hoped.
The form came two weeks too late, but better that than not at all. I take a lot with me on the self-confidence account, to stand there and shoot for victory. I'm a guy who thinks long-term. I want to win the overall World Cup, I won't do that this year, but this gave a good lesson and experience, he says.
And so I'll enjoy the victory and be humble about it being hard.
Martin Ponsiluoma also drove up in the pursuit, from 13th place in the sprint to seventh place, with four misses.
Corrected: In an earlier version, the wrong number of World Cup victories in the pursuit for Samuelsson was stated. The correct number is three.
