In Oberhof there is more fog and wind today than usual. And already at the first leg the peloton split significantly. After the second shooting, Fabien Claude was in the lead, Florent Claude and Strömsheim were 10 seconds behind. The next group of pursuers - Pryma, Nyquist and Rees were already 40 seconds behind. On the first exchange, Endre Strömsheim had almost caught up with the Frenchman, but the Belgian was still a little behind, but still, 3rd place, not bad. Go on Belgium, like in Oberhof 2017!
On the next prone, Lægreid and Perrault made two mistakes each, but the others shot no better. Belgian Thierry Langer even took a penalty loop, but his opponents were in the same conditions, and he even came out 4th! Only Fak and Mikishka fell into a temporary calm and hit all 5 targets the first try.
But after the standing, Norway was left alone. It was Laegreid who made 5 out of 5, but Perrault went to the penalty loop and was already 40 seconds behind. Benedict Doll, despite 3 extra rounds, held on to 3rd place, and almost caught up with the Frenchman. The rest by this time were behind by a minute or more. But Sweden had good chances, because they saved their best for the second part of the race. And +1:06 for Ponsiluoma and Samuelsson is a surmountable barrier.
Slovenia and Belgium were already losing for one and a half minutes, the rest - more than two. By this time Latvia had completed 8 penalty loops and became a lapped.
Tarjei Boe started his race rather weakly, Nawrath and Jacquelin gained 20 seconds from him in the first lap alone! And in the shooting, Tarjei was so slow that Philip Nawrath even took the lead. This is how Germany gained 46 seconds in one lap. Jacquelin was not as lucky as the German and took two penalty loops, letting Ponsiluoma and Planco go ahead. By the way, the Swede did not occupy his mat, but this was entirely the problem of the organizers, who did not tell him where to shoot.
But already at the standing the situation rolled back. Tarjei made 5 of 5, and Nawrath went into a penalty loop, and Germany again lost 47 seconds, as in the previous pass of the relay.
Ponsiluoma was out of shape, despite shooting well, he lost another 20 seconds. And Emilien Jacquelin finally buried the French team - two more penalty loops, in the end he was 8th, with 3 minutes behind. Lukas Hofer led Italy to 4th place, accompanied by Lovro Planko, whose work from the Slovenian also deserves praise. These two athletes had already been losing for 2 minutes. Six more teams were lapped.
Johannes was flawless at his leg, doing 10 out of 10 like in training, but everyone else faced small or large problems, and the gap from the Norwegian only increased. Thiago Giacomel, on the prone, had a real chance to catch up with Samuelsson, but hit the last target on the 4th attempt.
Philipp Horn barely managed to cope with the shooting, although it would seem that there was a minute of advantage, no one is pressing, shoot calmly. And then the drama, for Sweden, trouble came out of nowhere, it was Seba who failed to cope with the targets and went into the penalty loop, letting Thiago Giacomel take 3rd place. The Czech Republic, Switzerland and France competed for 5th place. Jeremy Finello won this battle.
| Name | Shooting | Time | ||
| 1 |  |
Norway | 0+7 | 1:17:34.2 |
 |
Endre Stroemsheim | 0+2 0+1 | ||
|
Sturla Laegreid | 0+2 0+0 | ||
|
Tarjei Boe | 0+2 0+0 | ||
|
Johannes Boe | 0+0 0+0 | ||
| 2 |  |
Germany | 1+15 | +2:01.9 |
|
Roman Rees | 0+0 0+3 | ||
|
Benedikt Doll | 0+2 0+3 | ||
|
Philipp Nawrath | 0+0 1+3 | ||
|
Philipp Horn | 0+1 0+3 | ||
| 3 |  |
Italy | 0+16 | +2:50.5 |
|
Elia Zeni | 0+3 0+3 | ||
|
Didier Bionaz | 0+1 0+3 | ||
|
Lukas Hofer | 0+1 0+0 | ||
|
Tommaso Giacomel | 0+3 0+2 | ||
| 4 |  |
Sweden | 1+11 | +3:37.9 |
|
Emil Nykvist | 0+0 0+1 | ||
|
Jesper Nelin | 0+2 0+0 | ||
|
Martin Ponsiluoma | 0+2 0+1 | ||
|
Sebastian Samuelsson | 0+2 1+3 | ||
| 5 |  |
Switzerland | 1+15 | +3:42.6 |
|
Sebastian Stalder | 0+2 1+3 | ||
|
Joscha Burkhalter | 0+1 0+2 | ||
|
Niklas Hartweg | 0+1 0+2 | ||
|
Jeremy Finello | 0+1 0+3 | ||
| 6 |  |
Czech Republic | 0+10 | +3:48.1 |
|
Jonas Marecek | 0+3 0+2 | ||
|
Tomas Mikyska | 0+0 0+3 | ||
|
Michal Krcmar | 0+1 0+1 | ||
|
Vitezslav Hornig | 0+0 0+0 | ||
| 7 |  |
France | 5+14 | +3:58.6 |
|
Fabien Claude | 0+0 0+1 | ||
|
Eric Perrot | 0+2 1+3 | ||
|
Emilien Jacquelin | 2+3 2+3 | ||
|
Maillet Fillon | 0+2 0+0 | ||
| 8 |  |
Slovenia | 0+7 | +4:31.7 |
|
Miha Dovzan | 0+1 0+2 | ||
|
Jakov Fak | 0+0 0+0 | ||
|
Lovro Planko | 0+0 0+0 | ||
|
Anton Vidmar | 0+2 0+2 | ||
| 9 |  |
Finland | 1+16 | +5:19.4 |
|
Jaakko Ranta | 0+0 1+3 | ||
|
Otto Invenius | 0+1 0+3 | ||
|
Tero Seppala | 0+1 0+3 | ||
|
Olli Hiidensalo | 0+2 0+3 | ||
| 10 |  |
Austria | 1+13 | +5:26.9 |
|
David Komatz | 0+3 0+2 | ||
|
Simon Eder | 0+2 0+0 | ||
|
Felix Leitner | 0+1 1+3 | ||
|
Dominic Unterweger | 0+1 0+1 | ||
| 11 |  |
Kazakstan | 2+17 | +5:43.3 |
|
Alexandr Mukhin | 0+2 1+3 | ||
|
Vladislav Kireyev | 0+3 0+1 | ||
|
Asset Dyussenov | 0+3 1+3 | ||
|
Nikita Akimov | 0+1 0+1 | ||
| 12 |  |
Estonia | 1+16 | +6:24.7 |
|
Rene Zahkna | 0+2 0+2 | ||
|
Kristo Siimer | 0+2 0+1 | ||
|
Raido Raenkel | 0+2 1+3 | ||
|
Mehis Udam | 0+1 0+3 | ||
| 13 |  |
Ukraine | 3+17 | +6:47.7 |
|
Artem Pryma | 0+3 0+0 | ||
|
Dmytro Pidruchnuy | 1+3 0+1 | ||
|
Anton Dudchenko | 0+3 2+3 | ||
|
Vitaliy Mandzyn | 0+1 0+3 | ||
| 14 |  |
Belgium | 4+16 | +7:57.5 |
|
Florent Claude | 0+1 0+0 | ||
|
Thierry Langer | 1+3 0+2 | ||
|
Marek Mackels | 0+1 1+3 | ||
|
Beauvais | 0+3 2+3 | ||
| 15 |  |
Poland | 3+10 | |
|
Andrzej Nedza-kubiniec | 0+0 0+1 | ||
|
Jan Gunka | 0+3 0+1 | ||
|
Konrad Badacz | 0+2 3+3 | ||
|
Marcin Zawol | |||
| 16 |  |
USA | 4+12 | |
|
Sean Doherty | 0+1 3+3 | ||
|
Maxime Germain | 1+3 0+2 | ||
|
Campbell Wright | 0+2 0+1 | ||
|
Jake Brown | |||
| 17 |  |
Bulgaria | 3+10 | |
|
Anton Sinapov | 0+1 0+3 | ||
|
Blagoy Todev | 0+1 0+1 | ||
|
Konstantin Vasilev | 0+1 3+3 | ||
|
Vladimir Iliev | |||
| 18 |  |
Lithuania | 6+14 | |
|
Maksim Fomin | 0+0 1+3 | ||
|
Vytautas Strolia | 1+3 0+3 | ||
|
Jokubas Mackine | 0+2 4+3 | ||
|
Tomas Kaukenas | |||
| 19 |  |
Moldova | 0+10 | |
|
Mihail Usov | 0+0 0+3 | ||
|
Andrei Usov | 0+1 0+2 | ||
|
Pavel Magazeev | 0+3 0+1 | ||
|
Maksim Makarov | |||
| 20 |  |
Romania | 4+13 | |
|
George Buta | 0+3 0+3 | ||
|
Dmitrii Shamaev | 0+1 0+0 | ||
|
Coltea | 2+3 2+3 | ||
|
Raul Flore | |||
| 21 |  |
Latvia | 8+11 | |
|
Aleksandrs Patrijuks | 0+2 4+3 | ||
|
Edgars Mise | 2+3 2+3 | ||
|
Andrejs Rastorgujevs | |||
|
Renars Birkentals |
