Biathlon in Annecy

A wafer-thin premiere victory, ÖSV men disappoint

Martin Uldal has won his first World Cup biathlon sprint.(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

The opening biathlon race in Annecy, France, produced a new World Cup winner on Thursday. Norway's Martin Uldal shot clear in the men's 10 km sprint and distanced his compatriot Johannes Thingnes Bö, who finished with one penalty, by 1.4 seconds. The top star of the scene therefore narrowly missed out on his 88th World Cup victory. Third place went to the Swede Sebastian Samuelsson (1/+10.8 sec.), the Austrians remained without World Cup points. 

Simon Eder missed the top 40 due to a miss in the standing start, but in 45th place (+1:49.0) the 41-year-old from Salzburg was still the best ÖSV athlete. His compatriots Frederik Mühlbacher (2/+2:53.7 min.), Felix Leitner (1/+2:59.3), Fabian Müllauer (2/+3:02.1) and Patrick Jakob (3/+3:32.2) only managed to finish 70th, 74th, 75th and 86th respectively, meaning that only Eder managed to qualify for the 12.5 km pursuit scheduled for Saturday (12.30 pm) in red-white-red. Even if the shooting didn't work out so well this time, the ÖSV's shortcoming lies in the running.

It was only the fifth World Cup race for Uldal, who came from the IBU Cup, which is also dominated by the Norwegians. Starting with bib 42, he already looked like the sure winner, but Bö was ahead of him at the last intermediate time despite the penalty loop. However, the newcomer had the better finish. Incidentally, his brother Tarjei Bö had to watch on as there was no room for him in the extremely strong Norwegian team this time. Incidentally, if Eder does not achieve a top result on Saturday, the 15 km mass start on Sunday (12.30) will take place without an Austrian.