Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe doubled up this afternoon, taking the 2025 BMW IBU World Championships Men’s Pursuit Gold medal in 32:26.9, making more history 24 hours after his 21st Gold medal, with number 22. Today’s win marked his 12th individual Gold medal, topping the record co-held by him, Martin Fourcade and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.

Last loop, “I had nothing left”

JT, despite his wire-to-wire win, was a bit worried about Campbell Wright on the last loop. “I was fighting alone in front, I managed to do some good shootings, I think. The last one was excellent. Then there is this young guy coning from behind. I really pushed hard from the start of the last loop; I had no energy left. On the final uphill, there was nothing more to do, but I tried to catch the finish line on top. I was so tired in the legs on the downhill; it was just enough.”

“A great weekend”

The now 12-time IBU WCH individual Gold medalist was more than pleased with his latest record in his final biathlon season. “It is another historic day. Yesterday was the total amount of Golds and now it is most individual winning World Championships titles. It’s a great weekend!”

“Race super-free: no expectations, no pressure’

The USA’s Wright won his second consecutive Silver medal, with one penalty, 5.6 seconds back, becoming the USA’s first-ever double IBU WCH medalist. “I proved everything I needed yesterday; that I can race well. That’s all I came for. So today I was able to race super-free: no expectations, no pressure…I enjoyed every single meter of that course, and every single shot I took!”

France’s Eric Perrot, with one penalty moved from 14th at the start to Bronze, his first-ever individual IBU WCH medal, 20.8 seconds back.

Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid shot clean in fourth place, 36.7 seconds back. Italy’s Tommaso Giacomel, with two penalties finished fifth, 54 seconds back. France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet with five penalties and Slovenia’s clean-shooting Jakov Fak tied for sixth, 1:16.6 back.

JT and Wright

Still sunshine but a bit more wind set the stage for the late afternoon men’s competition. JT maintained a big gap into the first prone, missed his fifth shot, staying 29 seconds up, Wright missed a shot, remaining second, 4 seconds ahead of the clean-shooting Giacomel and 14 up on Fillon Maillet.

The defending champion cleaned the second prone along with Wright and Giacomel, going out 1-2-3. Laegreid moved up to fifth with a clean stage, almost a minute back.

In his typical style, JT shot very fast in the first standing, missing a shot. The clean-shooting Wright closed the gap to 8.8 seconds. Laegreid’s perfect stage moved him to third, 31 seconds back.

Perrot Skis to Bronze

Five fast shots in the last standing earned JT’s WCH double. Wright was also perfect for his second Silver medal. Perrot and Laegreid cleaned three seconds apart, battling until Perrot skied away in the last loop for the Bronze.

Photos IBU/Vianney Thibaut, Nordic Focus