Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson made it two-for-two this afternoon taking his second consecutive sprint win in his home Oestersund stadium. After missing a single shot in the prone stage, Samuelsson roared back with very confident standing stage and brilliantly last loop skiing to cross the finish line in 22:58.7. Samuelsson’s speedy last loop pushed France’s Emilien Jacquelin, also with one penalty into second place. Like Samuelsson, Jacquelin’s teammate Quentin Fillon Maillet, also with a single penalty, flew over the last 3.3 km loop to seize third place, 21.5 seconds back.

Oestersund

Russia’s Eduard Latypov shot clean but finished fourth, 26.1 seconds back. Norwegian teammates Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen, with one penalty and clean-shooting Sturla Holm Laegreid finished fifth and sixth, 31.1 and 46,5 seconds back respectively.

Jacquelin sets the bar high

Light snow continued for the early evening men’s competition with the temperature dropping to-13C. Started number one Jacquelin skied a fast first loop, then opened the day with a clean prone stage, setting the bar high for his rivals. Number 13 Latypov matched but was five seconds slower. Sunday’s sprint winner Samuelsson missed one shot, putting him at a 15-second deficit. However, Christiansen shot clean putting him just 3.7 seconds from the top spot and in contention. Fillon Maillet, starting with number 68 quickly closed his five targets, leaving with the second fastest prone time.

Samuelsson’s cleans; takes the lead

Jacquelin shot extremely fast in standing but missed one shot. Latypov closed all five targets again in standing to move into second position but remained five seconds back. Samuelsson was extremely efficient in closing his standing targets, enough to take the lead away from Jacquelin. Christiansen then picked up a penalty, dropping him to 18 seconds back. Laegreid unsurprisingly went to 10-for-10, setting up his run for the podium, just 7.8 seconds slower than Jacquelin in second position. Fillon Maillet missed a shot, but still left 9.8 seconds from the top spot.

Fillon Maillet moves up to podium

Jacquelin kept up his torrid pace over the last 3.3 km, looking initially like the winner. By the 8.8 km split, Samuelsson continued to build his lead over his French rival, pushing the gap to 15.8 seconds. With 800 meters to go, he added another second. The Swedish star poured on the coals in the last downhill to cross with a 20 second bulge and a finger pointed skyward, proclaiming victory. By the 8.8 km split, Fillon Maillet was up to third position, closing fast. He was all out over the last 1200 meters, pushing hard down the finish stretch gaining valuable seconds to finish third for his first podium of the season.

Fillon Maillet: focused for the fight

Fillon Maillet was inspired by his disappointments last weekend, “I am very satisfied with my place today. Last week, my shape was not perfect…it was disappointing for me. And I missed a lot on the shooting range. After the sprint on Sunday, I got some wings. I watched the race again and saw if I stayed focused during the race, the shooting results, to push hard at the finish, I can fight with the best and that is what I did today.”

Wrist injury improved skiing

Regarding his fast skiing, he admitted the wrist injury helped his legs. “After the injury, I worked only with my legs. I think that helped me a lot in climbing. I was always fast on flat tracks; on tracks like Antholz or this one, it was really hard to have this speed in tracks with a lot of climbing. After the injury I am able to fight hard on climbs. (Today) I did not use a lot of energy climbing whereas in the past years, it was really hard for me.” Photos: IBU/Christian Manzoni