The first half of the race featured remarkably close competition. At the first exchange, 18 teams were separated by just 30 seconds. At the second exchange, the field was still extremely compact, with 12 teams in contention — and notably, France and Sweden were at the back of that leading group.
For France, Fabien Claude picked up a penalty loop on the opening leg, and Oscar Lombardot was unable to recover much ground. Sweden also ran into trouble: Jesper Nelin struggled on the standing shooting and, although he escaped using two spare rounds, he handed over with a 30-second deficit.
Things changed dramatically on the next leg. Quentin Fillon Maillet and Martin Ponsiluoma erased the gap, with the Swede even moving into the lead. By the end of his leg, Ponsiluoma had gained five to nine seconds on the chasers, who included David Zobel, Martin Uldal, Quentin Fillon Maillet, and, unexpectedly, Vasilyev (Bulgaria) and Kehva (Estonia). Elia Zini lost a bit more time, and without Tommaso Giacomel, Italy dropped out of the medal conversation.
Czechia and Finland, however, still had realistic hopes, especially with Tero Seppälä and Michal Krčmář set to ski the final leg.
Sebastian Samuelsson chose not to force the pace, allowing all the chasers — except the Bulgarian — to catch him before the shooting range. After the prone shooting, the group stayed together, although the Swede, the German and the Estonian had to chase the leading duo of Vetle Christiansen and Eric Perrot. The Estonian was unable to close the gap.
Everything came down to the final shooting. Only Eric Perrot managed to hit all five targets immediately. Christiansen and Philipp Nawrath needed one spare round each, while Samuelsson required two. The situation leaving the range was as follows:
- Perrot — leader
- Nawrath +8
- Christiansen +11
- Samuelsson +13
- Kulbin +14
The Norwegian immediately went all out and quickly passed the German, but the Frenchman remained out of reach. Navrat stayed on Christiansen’s skis until the finish but lacked the strength for a decisive attack.
At last, it was not two young Swedes who spoiled the race, but the most experienced one — Sebastian Samuelsson.
Estonian Kulbin held on to fifth place for his team, while Michal Krčmář brought Czechia home in sixth.
Bulgaria suffered a major collapse on the final leg, with Zashev skiing well below the required level. In just one leg, Bulgaria dropped from the lead to 12th place, more than three minutes behind.
Notably, no team was lapped in today’s race.
| Name | № | Shooting | Time | ||
| 1 |  |
France | 2 | 1+4 | 1:08:58.1 |
 |
Fabien Claude | 0+0 1+3 | |||
|
Oscar Lombardot | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Maillet Quentin Fillon | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Eric Perrot | 0+0 0+0 | |||
| 2 |  |
Norway | 1 | 0+7 | 1:09:04.3 |
|
Johannes Dale-skjevdal | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Sturla Holm Laegreid | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Martin Uldal | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Vetle Sjastad Christiansen | 0+0 0+1 | |||
| 3 |  |
Germany | 4 | 0+5 | 1:09:06.0 |
|
Justus Strelow | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Danilo Riethmueller | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
David Zobel | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Philipp Nawrath | 0+1 0+1 | |||
| 4 |  |
Sweden | 3 | 0+7 | 1:09:22.1 |
|
Victor Brandt | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Jesper Nelin | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Martin Ponsiluoma | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Sebastian Samuelsson | 0+1 0+2 | |||
| 5 |  |
Estonia | 8 | 0+4 | 1:09:36.1 |
|
Rene Zahkna | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Kristo Siimer | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Mark-markos Kehva | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Jakob Kulbin | 0+0 0+0 | |||
| 6 |  |
Czech Republic | 7 | 0+12 | 1:10:01.0 |
|
Tomas Mikyska | 0+0 0+3 | |||
|
Jonas Marecek | 0+3 0+3 | |||
|
Vitezslav Hornig | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Michal Krcmar | 0+0 0+1 | |||
| 7 |  |
Switzerland | 10 | 1+8 | 1:10:05.8 |
|
Sebastian Stalder | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Niklas Hartweg | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Jeremy Finello | 0+1 1+3 | |||
|
Joscha Burkhalter | 0+0 0+1 | |||
| 8 |  |
USA | 5 | 1+8 | 1:10:10.2 |
|
Sean Doherty | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Maxime Germain | 0+1 0+2 | |||
|
Paul Schommer | 0+0 1+3 | |||
|
Campbell Wright | 0+1 0+0 | |||
| 9 |  |
Italy | 6 | 0+7 | 1:10:12.3 |
|
Patrick Braunhofer | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Lukas Hofer | 0+1 0+2 | |||
|
Elia Zeni | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Nicola Romanin | 0+0 0+1 | |||
| 10 |  |
Finland | 12 | 0+10 | 1:10:42.2 |
|
Olli Hiidensalo | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Jimi Klemettinen | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Otto Invenius | 0+1 0+3 | |||
|
Tero Seppala | 0+0 0+3 | |||
| 11 |  |
Austria | 20 | 0+6 | 1:11:17.1 |
|
Dominic Unterweger | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Simon Eder | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Lukas Haslinger | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
David Komatz | 0+0 0+1 | |||
| 12 |  |
Bulgaria | 19 | 0+5 | 1:11:54.6 |
|
Blagoy Todev | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Vladimir Iliev | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Konstantin Vasilev | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Vasil Zashev | 0+0 0+3 | |||
| 13 |  |
Latvia | 21 | 0+12 | 1:11:57.0 |
|
Andrejs Rastorgujevs | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Renars Birkentals | 0+2 0+2 | |||
|
Aleksandrs Patrijuks | 0+2 0+2 | |||
|
Edgars Mise | 0+0 0+2 | |||
| 14 |  |
Slovenia | 11 | 1+7 | 1:12:05.8 |
|
Miha Dovzan | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Anton Vidmar | 0+1 0+3 | |||
|
Matic Repnik | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Lovro Planko | 0+0 1+3 | |||
| 15 |  |
Lithuania | 18 | 0+9 | 1:12:39.8 |
|
Nikita Cigak | 0+2 0+0 | |||
|
Vytautas Strolia | 0+1 0+2 | |||
|
Maksim Fomin | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Darius Dinda | 0+0 0+2 | |||
| 16 |  |
Poland | 13 | 1+9 | 1:12:48.3 |
|
Jan Gunka | 1+3 0+2 | |||
|
Grzegorz Galica | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Konrad Badacz | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Fabian Suchodolski | 0+0 0+1 | |||
| 17 |  |
Ukraine | 9 | 0+13 | 1:13:05.6 |
|
Taras Lesyuk | 0+0 0+3 | |||
|
Vitalii Mandzyn | 0+2 0+0 | |||
|
Bogdan Borkovski | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Dmytro Pidruchnuy | 0+2 0+3 | |||
| 18 |  |
Kazakstan | 15 | 0+8 | 1:13:08.2 |
|
Vladislav Kireyev | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Alexandr Mukhin | 0+2 0+0 | |||
|
Kiril Bauer | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Vadim Kurales | 0+0 0+2 | |||
| 19 |  |
Belgium | 17 | 0+9 | 1:13:49.9 |
|
Thierry Langer | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Sam Parmentier | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Cesar Beauvais | 0+3 0+2 | |||
|
Florent Claude | 0+0 0+1 | |||
| 20 |  |
Romania | 16 | 0+8 | 1:13:59.3 |
|
Dmitrii Shamaev | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
George Buta | 0+3 0+1 | |||
|
George Coltea | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Raul Antonio Flore | 0+2 0+0 | |||
| 21 |  |
Canada | 14 | 3+13 | 1:15:12.0 |
|
Adam Runnalls | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Logan Pletz | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Jasper Fleming | 0+2 0+2 | |||
|
Zachary Connelly | 1+3 2+3 | |||
| 22 |  |
Moldova | 22 | 0+6 | 1:16:12.3 |
|
Pavel Magazeev | 0+2 0+0 | |||
|
Maksim Makarov | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Mihail Usov | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Andrei Usov | 0+0 0+1 |
