Johansson and Stroemsheim win in Sprint 1 in Obertilliach
Tilda Johansson of Sweden and Endre Stroemsheim of Norway are the winners of the Sprint 1 at the IBU Cup in Obertilliach, Austria. For Johansson it was a first-ever IBU Cup win, for Stroemsheim sixth this season.
Johansson's rise continues
In moody and windy conditions, Johansson kept her cool on the shooting range, cleared all targets, and won in 22:16.8. Sophie Chauveau of France, currently 18th in the BMW IBU World Cup Total Score standings and on the lookout for good feelings before the BMW IBU World Championships Oberhof 2023, missed the last shot in the standing and finished second, 36.6 seconds behind Johansson. Lydia Hiernickel of Switzerland, in her first biathlon season, after she switched from cross-country after the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, achieved her first-ever IBU Cup podium. She missed one shot for third place, 47 seconds behind the winner.
“I felt tired before the start today. I planned to focus hard on the shooting range. It worked to perfection. It brought me my first-ever IBU Cup win and helped me increase my lead in the Total Score standings,” said Johansson.
Paula Botet of France, missing the 10th shot, finished fourth, 50.8 seconds back. Fuyuko Tachizaki of Japan, with 9/10, finished fifth, 53.5 seconds behind Johansson. Julian Fruehwirt of Germany, one of the few athletes with a clean shooting score, was just one-tenth of a second behind Tachizaki in sixth place.
Johansson extended her lead in the IBU Cup Total Score standings over Gilonne Guigonnat of France to 99 points.
IBU Cupe Obertilliach - Sprints 1
Stroemsheim’s sixth win of the season
Stroemsheim beat his teammate Vebjoern Soerum in the contest of the fastest skiers in the IBU Cup to take the first Sprint at the IBU Cup in Obertilliach. Dmytro Pidruchnyi of Ukraine, returning from a knee injury and operation, finished third.
Stroemsheim missed once in each of the shooting stages, but still clinched his sixth win in the IBU Cup in 2022/2023 in 24:26.9. Soerum repeated Stroemsheim’s shooting patterns and finished second, 9.4 seconds back. Pidruchnyi, with one miss in the standing, finished third, 9.8 seconds behind Stroemsheim.
“It was a close skiing contest with Vebjoern today. I started faster than him, but after two misses, I had to wait for his second shooting. With the second mistake, it came down to the last lap, and luckily I won. Skiing shape is good, shooting accuracy a bit up and down but solid enough on most days to be in the lead in the Total Score standings,” said Stroemsheim.
Aleksander Fjeld Andersen, with 9/10, finished fourth, 18.6 seconds behind the winner. Mats Oeverby of Norway bounced back from a light knee injury and his disappointing week at the IBU Open European Championships in Lenzerheide for fifth place, with one miss, 29 seconds back. George Buta of Romania, with 10/10, completed the Flowers Ceremony podium in sixth place, 31.2 seconds behind the winner from Norway.
Stroemsheim has 976 points atop the IBU Cup Total Score. He has 262 points advantage over Oeverby, with four competitions to go.
Photo: IBU/H. Deubert
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