BIATHLON: Boe and Fourcade win one each in Hochfilzen

Olympic Biathlon champ Martin Fourcade of France (Photo: Peter Porai-Koshits via Wikipedia)

It’s going to be a season-long tug-of-war between Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe, 25, and seven-time World Cup seasonal champion Martin Fourcade, 30, of France.

Including the weekend’s races in Hochfilzen, there have been five competitions this season in the IBU World Cup. Boe has won three and Fourcade two. Boe has 248 points in the seasonal standings and Fourcade has 191, but there is a long way to go.

In Hochfilzen, Boe won the 10 km Sprint, with Fourcade second, and then Fourcade won the 12.5 km Pursuit, with Boe ninth. This is going to go on all season.

The women’s races went to Dorothea Wierer (ITA) in the 7.5 km Sprint and Kaisa Makarainen (FIN) won the 10 km Pursuit, with Weirer third. Wierer has the seasonal lead over the Finn, 252-245. Summaries from Hochfilzen:

IBU World Cup
Hochfilzen (AUT) ~ 10-16 December 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s 10 km Sprint: 1. Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR), 24:49.2 (1 shooting penalty); 2. Martin Fourcade (FRA), 24:57.8 (0); 3. Benedikt Doll (GER), 24:59.4 (0); 4. Antonin Guigonnat (FRA), 25:15.1 (0); 5. Arnd Peiffer (GER), 25:17.1 (0).

Men’s 12.5 km Pursuit: 1. Fourcade (FRA), 32:22.3 (0); 2. Peiffer (GER), +13.7 (1); 3. Vetle Christiansen (NOR), +16.1 (0); 4. Julian Eberhard (AUT), +37.4 (3); 5. Lukas Hofer (ITA), +42.2 (2).

Men’s 4×7.5 km: 1. Sweden (Femling, Ponsiluoma, Stenersen, Samuelsson), 1:16:10.6 (5); 2. Norway, 1:16:14.2 (7); 3. Germany, 1:16:39.4 (6); 4. Austria, 1:16:52.3 (7); 5. Russia, 1:17:03.3 (10). Also: 12. United States (Leif Nordgren, Sean Doherty, Travis Cooper, Jake Brown), 1:18:44.2 (10).

Women’s 7.5 km Sprint: 1. Dorothea Wierer (ITA), 21:04.9 (1); 2. Kaisa Makarainen (FIN), 21:05.5 (1); 3. Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht (RUS), 21:29.3 (0); 4. Lisa Vittozzi (ITA), 21:30.2 (1); 5. Monika Hojnisz (POL), 21:33.1 (0).

Women’s 10 km Pursuit: 1. Makarainen (FIN), 30:53.1 (3); 2. Paulina Fialkova (SVK), +1.5 (2); 3. Wierer (ITA), +2.8 (4); 4. Hojnisz (POL), +8.7 (0); 5. Anastasiya Kuzmina (SVK), +13.3 (3).

Women’s 4×6 km: 1. Italy (Vittozzi, Runggaldier, Wierer, Sanfilippo), 1:10:58.7 (3); 2. Sweden, 1:11:07.1 (8); 3. France, 1:11:10.5 (9); 4. Russia, 1:11:45.9 (6); 5. Belarus, 1:12:12.1 (4). Also: 13. United States (Joanne Reid, Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, Deedra Irwin), 1:14:37.8 (9).