Norway’s Marte Olsbu Roeiseland’s two impressive standing stages closed the gap on sprint winner Hanna Sola of Belarus until she was within 11 seconds with 2 km to go. With a dramatic rush in the last uphill and sprint finish, Olsbu Roeiseland won the Hochfilzen women’s 10 km pursuit, going away in 30:04.1. Sola, with three penalties finished second, 4.1 seconds back. Sweden’s Elvira Oeberg with one penalty finished third, 23.3 seconds back.

Sola’s teammate Dzinara Alimbekava finished fourth, also with one penalty, 48.1 seconds back. Elvira’s older sister Hanna, with five penalties, finished fifth, 1:11.7 back. Marketa Davidova of Czech Republic, with two penalties finished sixth, 1:15.6 back.

Sola dominates prone stages

The final competition for this year in Hochfilzen had conditions as spectacular as the men had several hours earlier: brilliant blue skies and no wind on the shooting range. Sola led the 60-woman field, capitalizing on her 45 second lead and cleaning the first prone stage with ease. Olsbu Roeiseland did the same but gained no time on the leader. Alimbekava matched both but trailed by 1:16, with the four women behind her also perfect on the range. With almost a minute lead, the second prone stage was just as fast and perfect for Sola. Her Norwegian rival matched again as did Alimbekava, but remained 1:05 and 1:23 back. Elvira made a big move from 13th to fourth with a clean second prone, but still 23 seconds behind Alimbekava.

First Cracks

Sola cracked with two penalties in the first standing stage, but still left with a 36-second advantage. Olsbu Roeiseland also picked up a penalty while Alimbekava cleaned, putting the Belarusian two seconds in front of the Norwegian. Elvira cleaned again, holding fourth, but 53.8 seconds back. Before the final standing stage, Olsbu Roeiseland moved back into second position.

Olsbu Roeiseland cleans; sprints to victory

A single penalty in the last standing stage for Sola combined with a 5-for-5 for the Norwegian closed the gap to 11 seconds. Elvira cleaned for the third straight time to move into third, 27.2 seconds back. By the 9.2 km split, the gap between first and second was down to 5.3 seconds. On the last uphill heading to the 9.6 km split, Olsbu Roeiseland dug deep, gaining with every stride. As they turned downhill, she passed Sola on the outside, sprinting the last 200 meters to victory.

Penalty difference maker

Sola was disappointed, but felt the penalties were the difference maker. “I am a little bit sad that it did not work a little bit better, and I could not take first place. But this is sport, and it was a little bit tough to run today. Anyways, I am really happy with this result, because it is a good result for me and it is a podium…If I did not have one extra penalty loop, I would have had 30-second advantage and leave with that gap and for sure that would be enough to get first place. But we have what we have right now.”

Photos: IBU/ Evgeny Tumashov, Christian Manzoni