In the first half of the race, the leaders were in a tight group, with Germany, France and Norway crossing the equator within three seconds of each other. Teams from the United States (+8), Canada, and Austria (+20) were unexpectedly high. Sweden fell to 20th place thanks to the performance of Jesper Nerin.
Nothing changed until the sixth shot, and Tarjei Bo was the only one who could shoot accurately. Fabien Claude went to the penalty loop and Bénédict Doll equalized with two points.
Thanks to this, Niklas Hartweg moved up to second place, while Felix Leitner also moved up to fourth place, already close to Claude. However, by the end of the third leg, the gap between France and Switzerland was so close that Slovenian Jakov Fak was able to move into fourth place. At this point Italy and Germany had already lost by 1 minute 06 seconds.
Vetre Christiansen had no problems lying on his stomach or standing up, leading Norway to another victory. There are no poses or bows this time.
However, the battle for the remaining two spots on the podium was very interesting. Firstly, Nowras and Jacomel have significantly closed the gap on the Frenchman. Jeremy Finello also joined the pair, although he wasn’t a very good prone shooter. The trio managed to close a gap of nearly 20 seconds from Quentin-Fillon-Mayet in one lap, and all four of them took the final shot at the same time.
And this time luck smiled on the Germans. Philippe Narras made 5/5 while his opponent had to use extra rounds. Although Jacomel and Fillon Mayet ran just 10 seconds behind the German, they were unable to close the gap and the Italian won the duel. Italy is in 3rd place! Just like a week ago!
By the way, no team was ever behind. This is very rare, if ever.
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