16.02.2020 - Two exciting competitions in the Südtirol Arena on sunday

The Biathlon World Championships in Anterselva reach their absolute highlight today.

At the foot of Collalto the new men and women’s World Champions in the pursuit will be determined. The best women pursuit racers in the world start at 1:00 pm, the men’s competition at 3:15 pm.

The women’s pursuit will be headed up by sprint World Champion Marte Olsbu Røiseland The 29-year old Norwegian who celebrated her first World Championship Gold in her favourite location of Anterselva on Friday, starts with a 7-second head-start ahead of surprise second Susan Dunklee (USA). Røiseland’s lead over Bronze medallist Lucie Charvatova (Czech Republic), who also caused a stir during the second day of the competitions, is 21 seconds.

Fifth and 31 seconds behind Røiseland, Denise Herrmann, the best German biathlete in the World Championships sprint, takes up the pursuit. She will be closely followed by Italian medal hopefuls Lisa Vittozzi (+38 seconds) and overall World Cup leader Dorothea Wierer (Rasun di Sotto/+39). Tiril Eckhoff, who is in top of the pursuit classification and therefore wears the red jersey, starts in the overall ten-kilometre distance with the four shooting sessions (two prone, two standing) in 59th place following a disappointing sprint and thus last but one biathlete with a 2.08-minute gap.


Loginov is the man to pursue

Among the men, who race over 12.5 kilometres, sprint World Champion Alexander Loginov from Russia is the man to pursue. His strongest competitors are likely to be runner-up World Champion Quentin Fillon Maillet and Bronze medallist Martin Fourcade (both France). Fillon Maillet is currently in the lead in the pursuit race ahead of Fourcade. Today they must make good their respective 7 and 20 second gap behind Loginov.

Strong challengers are also the two Bø brothers who only just missed out on medals in the sprint. Tarjei and Johannes Thingnes Bø start the pursuit competition one after the other and have to catch up a little more than 20 seconds behind Alexander Loginov. Johannes Thingnes Bø won the first two pursuit races this season in Hochfilzen and Annecy-Le Grand Bornand respectively, before taking a break in Ruhpolding where Martin Fourcade triumphed. The best Italians after the World Championship spring in Anterselva Lukas Hofer (Montal) with start number 21 is 1.22 minutes behind Loginov. Two further members of the Italian national team are also at the start: Thomas Bormilini (41./+1.59) and Dominik Windisch (48./+2.11) .

There are no medals to be won on Monday. After a total of 4 exciting days of competition, the international biathlon elite can enjoy a day of rest.
 
You could be interested in