Thanks to the Norwegians for the tiny intrigue, but it seems they need more penalty loops.
At the first shooting, almost no one had any problems, except for the Swede and the Swiss who were unable to clear the targets. And although the athletes left in a dense group, no one managed to stay near Lægreid. Krcmar was behind by 3 seconds, Strelow and Claude by 12, and the main group by 21 seconds or more.
But happiness is not in speed! We have never seen Lægreid like this. Three penalties for the Norwegian team, and penultimate place, this is a gift to the opponents!
Krcmar’s skis are lousy, with the naked eye it was clear how much Krcmar lost to Claude on the long descent - 4 seconds, no less. But then the Czech already caught up with the Frenchman, and together they reached the finish line of this leg. Next came Bonacci and Pryma +10 seconds, Strelow and Braunhofer were 16 seconds behind. Laegreid slightly improved the position, but was more than a minute behind. Victor Brandt completely dashed the team's hopes for a good result - Sweden was already losing by 1:40 at that point.
The drama expanded further. On the prone everything was fine, but on the standing of the second leg, the only real rival of the Norwegians, the French team also encountered problems in shooting. It was Emilien Jacquelin who hit only 3 targets. And by the finish of this leg, Tarjei Boe was in 3rd place, with Johannes Kühn and Sean Doherty hanging on his tail. Now the French were losing for more than a minute.
Italy was in the lead (Tomasso Giacomel finally did not miss), and Pidruchniy finished his race in second place.
Johannes Boe immediately got down to business, Benedikt Doll and Campbell Wright latched on to him. By prone they had reduced the gap to 20 seconds, and then Johannes went off on his own. He caught up with the Italian Didier Bionaz at the standing, and after the shooting he came out in the lead - this is a classic.
Bionaz shot for a very long time, and spent all the rounds, and in the end he became 4th, with a gap of 46 seconds. And Wright and Doll took second and third places, they were 10 seconds ahead. Komatz, who finished the leg in 5th place, was a minute behind the Italian!
Ukrainian Mandzin, who took the relay in 2nd, finished his stage in 9th. He shot poorly and ran slowly (lost a minute on the last lap). So much so that Sebastian Samuelsson has already overtaken him, and pulled Sweden from 16th place to 7th.
By the way, Eric Perrot supported the glorious tradition of the French, and earned 2 more penalty loops, thereby completely depriving France of hope for medals.
At the last leg, Vetle Christiansen took the lead. Lukas Hofer immediately caught up with Philipp Nawrath and James Brown, they were 40 seconds behind the Norwegian. And considering that the closest pursuers were losing 1:15, it was these four who had to compete for three prizes.
Christiansen coped with it without any problems and took Norway to victory, but the main fight was for second place. Unfortunately, the American was not able to participate in it. Firstly, he was still behind this pair on the track, and secondly, he was forced to run a penalty loop.
On the final lap, Lukas Hofer tried to break away from Nawrath at the end of each climb, and failed every time. It all looked quite funny, and the Italian was still left behind.
USA 4th (Penalty Loop, said it best place since 1991), Sweden 5th, Austria 6th.
Finn Otto Invenius gave a stunning breakthrough. He not only gained 3 positions on the final lap, he also showed unprecedented agility at the finish line, overtaking Guigonnat.
It's been a long time, if ever, since the Swiss team took last place.
| Name | Shooting | - | Time | ||
| 1 |  |
Norway | 3+5 | 1:13:12.3 | |
 |
Sturla Laegreid | 0+0 3+3 | |||
|
Tarjei Boe | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Johannes Boe | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Vetle Christiansen | 0+0 0+1 | |||
| 2 |  |
Italy | 0+8 | +26.5 | |
|
Braunhofer | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Tommaso Giacomel | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Didier Bionaz | 0+1 0+3 | |||
|
Lukas Hofer | 0+1 0+1 | |||
| 3 |  |
Germany | 0+8 | +27.3 | |
|
Justus Strelow | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Johannes Kühn | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Benedikt Doll | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Philipp Nawrath | 0+2 0+1 | |||
| 4 |  |
USA | 1+9 | +1:30.0 | |
|
Vincent Bonacci | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Sean Doherty | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Campbell Wright | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Jake Brown | 0+2 1+3 | |||
| 5 |  |
Sweden | 1+9 | +1:46.5 | |
|
Victor Brandt | 1+3 0+0 | |||
|
Jesper Nelin | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Sebastian Samuelsson | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Martin Ponsiluoma | 0+0 0+2 | |||
| 6 |  |
Austria | 0+8 | +3:12.1 | |
|
Dominic Unterweger | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Simon Eder | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
David Komatz | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Patrick Jakob | 0+2 0+1 | |||
| 7 |  |
Finland | 1+9 | +3:34.7 | |
|
Jaakko Ranta | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Tero Seppala | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Heikki Laitinen | 0+0 1+3 | |||
|
Otto Invenius | 0+1 0+3 | |||
| 8 |  |
France | 4+13 | +3:34.9 | |
|
Fabien Claude | 0+1 0+2 | |||
|
Emilien Jacquelin | 0+0 2+3 | |||
|
Eric Perrot | 2+3 0+1 | |||
|
Antonin Guigonnat | 0+0 0+3 | |||
| 9 |  |
Ukraine | 1+7 | +3:57.4 | |
|
Artem Pryma | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Dmytro Pidruchnuy | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Vitaliy Mandzyn | 0+1 1+3 | |||
|
Anton Dudchenko | 0+1 0+1 | |||
| 10 |  |
Latvia | 1+11 | +4:19.9 | |
|
Renars Birkentals | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Edgars Mise | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Aleksandrs Patrijuks | 0+1 1+3 | |||
|
Andrejs Rastorgujevs | 0+2 0+1 | |||
| 11 |  |
Czech Republic | 1+11 | +4:23.5 | |
|
Michal Krcmar | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Jonas Marecek | 0+3 1+3 | |||
|
Jakub Stvrtecky | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Vitezslav Hornig | 0+1 0+1 | |||
| 12 |  |
Estonia | 1+15 | +4:26.0 | |
|
Jakob Kulbin | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Rene Zahkna | 0+3 0+1 | |||
|
Kristo Siimer | 0+3 0+1 | |||
|
Raido Raenkel | 0+3 1+3 | |||
| 13 |  |
Slovenia | 3+11 | +4:38.3 | |
|
Miha Dovzan | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Anton Vidmar | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Jakov Fak | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Lovro Planko | 0+1 3+3 | |||
| 14 |  |
Poland | 0+11 | +5:15.4 | |
|
Konrad Badacz | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Jan Gunka | 0+3 0+1 | |||
|
Kacper Gunka | 0+1 0+2 | |||
|
Marcin Zawol | 0+2 0+0 | |||
| 15 |  |
Lithuania | 0+12 | +5:34.3 | |
|
Tomas Kaukenas | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Vytautas Strolia | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Maksim Fomin | 0+0 0+3 | |||
|
Jokubas Mackine | 0+3 0+2 | |||
| 16 |  |
Bulgaria | 1+10 | +6:00.0 | |
|
Blagoy Todev | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Vladimir Iliev | 0+1 1+3 | |||
|
Anton Sinapov | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Vasil Zashev | 0+3 0+0 | |||
| 17 |  |
Romania | 2+7 | +6:05.0 | |
|
George Buta | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Coltea | 1+3 0+0 | |||
|
Dmitrii Shamaev | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Cornel Puchianu | 0+0 1+3 | |||
| 18 |  |
Kazakstan | 1+13 | +6:05.3 | |
|
Alexandr Mukhin | 0+2 0+2 | |||
|
Vladislav Kireyev | 0+3 0+1 | |||
|
Asset Dyussenov | 0+0 1+3 | |||
|
Nikita Akimov | 0+1 0+1 | |||
| 19 |  |
Canada | 0+6 | +8:00.7 | |
|
Christian Gow | 0+2 0+0 | |||
|
Adam Runnalls | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Logan Pletz | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Zachary Connelly | 0+1 0+1 | |||
| 20 |  |
Belgium | 2+13 | ||
|
Florent Claude | 0+3 0+1 | |||
|
Marek Mackels | 0+1 0+2 | |||
|
Thierry Langer | 0+3 2+3 | |||
|
Beauvais | ||||
| 21 |  |
Switzerland | 3+11 | ||
|
Joscha Burkhalter | 2+3 0+0 | |||
|
Sebastian Stalder | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Jeremy Finello | 0+2 1+3 | |||
|
Niklas Hartweg |
