Ponsiluoma had the second-best skiing time and became the best Swedish performer of the day. However, with three misses, it was only a 12th place, 44 seconds behind the winner Tarjei Bø, Norway.
After a miss in the prone shooting, he started the standing perfectly, with three hits. Then he began to think too much, and finished with two misses.
Missed in every competition
I start thinking a bit at the end that "damn, this can be a good competition", says Ponsiluoma to SVT.
It's damn annoying that it becomes two misses in the last two standing. It felt very stable and one miss in the prone is no problem, I know I have a very good chance anyway if I do a good standing series.
The 29-year-old has not shot fully in a single individual competition this winter and has only been top 10 once. But it has looked a bit better lately, and maybe he can find the right rhythm just in time for the World Championship, which starts in almost three weeks.
It's just to keep working. Hope I hit them at the World Championship instead.
Fin comeback by Nykvist
Tarjei Bø won a tenth of a second ahead of his compatriot Sturla Holm Lægreid (one miss), who was 0.4 seconds behind at the finish. Third-placed Tommaso Giacomel shot two misses but had the fastest skiing time, and in front of the home crowd, the Italian was only 2.6 seconds from victory in the end.
The Swedish skiers shot poorly overall – Sebastian Samuelsson (21st) and Jesper Nelin (30th) also had three misses each – with Emil Nykvist as the only exception. The Värmlander made a comeback in the World Cup after major injury problems and shot fully. However, it went slower on the track, and Nykvist finished 27th – tied for a personal best.
All Swedish skiers, including Malte Stefansson and Viktor Brandt, will participate in Sunday's pursuit, where the top 60 from the sprint qualify.
