A surprise to start: Martin Ponsiluoma winner, the Blues and the Norwegians miss each other

A surprise entry and the Blues back. The opening round of the World Cup gave birth to an unexpected podium this Tuesday in Kontiolahti. Never in the top 5 in the discipline, Martin Ponsiluoma won the Individual (20km) ahead of the Swiss Niklas Hartweg, 22, who had never done better than 17th in the World Cup, and the German David Zobel, whose best result was an 8th place. The Swede thus offers his 2nd victory in the world cup, 21 months after a world title in sprint. The recovery was difficult for the Blues. Fabien Claude is the first of them (9th) and Quentin Fillon Maillet has to settle for 15th place.

At fault from his first ball, QFM missed another closing his first shot, boding nothing good for the future. But if the outgoing winner of the World Cup was then perfect during his next three visits to the stadium (18/20), he missed a lot on the track to hope to return to the match. He thus only signed the 18th ski time at 2’19” from Johannes Boe, in Olympic form but too imprecise behind the rifle (12th, 16/20). A fairly shy recovery for the boss of last season. But nothing very surprising in itself, the “Morbac” needing to chain races to then run at full speed.

Laegreid snapped

The second French headliner, Emilien Jacquelin, ranked 28th (16/20), just behind the youngest of the band, Eric Perrot (25th, 18/20). Émilien Claude also enters the points (37th, 17/20), unlike Antonin Guigonnat (54th, 16/20). The only blue top 10 is the work of Fabien Claude, quite solid on the track (8th time at 1’33” from Boe, just behind Jacquelin, 7th at 1’25th) and behind the rifle (18/20).

There is neither French nor Norwegian on the box, which only happened once last season, but also over the last five seasons. Sturla Holm Laegreid had everything to climb the top step. The Norwegian made the perfect run after three shots and had a 41-second margin over Ponsiluoma by settling on the mat one last time. But he cracked when he missed his last two shots and had to settle for 6th place, 1’23” behind Ponsiluoma, who only missed him once, on his second shot.

Hartweg and Zobel’s perfect run

Of the 97 biathletes entered, two signed a 20/20. And both finished on the podium, a first for each of them. The young Hartweg (2nd at 37”) had already distinguished himself last season by taking 17th place in the Individual at Antholz, his best result so far. Zobel (3rd at 59”), 26, had finished the winter well by finishing 8th in the mass-start in Oslo. But no one was expecting them at such a party for this opening event.