Johannes Thingnes Bö celebrated his 39th world cup victory in the 10 km Sprint of Hochfilzen. The 26-year-old Norwegian won 7.8 seconds in front of Simon Desthieux who also had to do one penalty loop like Bö. The third place went to Alexander Loginov (+14.6 sec) from Russia who was flawless at the range.

There was also reason for joy from an Austrian point of view: Felix Leitner from the Tyrol kept cool and hit all ten targets at his home race in front of 7100 spectators. The 22-year-old who now lives in Hochfilzen had every reason to be happy about his 8th place (+35.1 sec) which was his best sprint result so far. Julian Eberhard showed a good performance on the course but three misses prevented him from fighting for the top positions; he finished in 30th place. His brother Tobias finished in 38th place with one miss, Harald Lemmerer (also one miss) also qualified for tomorrow’s pursuit competition with a 51st place.

QUOTES:
Felix Leitner: “It could not have been any better. I have already had a very good feeling when I fell asleep yesterday because I have hot all targets in training. I knew that if I remained calm and worked diligently, I will shoot clean. The skiing also was super, so my performance is on point. Now I have to continue just like that, then there will be many opportunities.

Ricco Groß (ÖSV Head Coach): “Felix’ performance shows his development. His progressing step by step. Today was the sprint in his carrerr thus far. He is on a very good path. Julian was a bit more troublesome. He started the race fully committed but then made mistakes he no longer makes in his training process. The misses in prone position in particular could have been avoided. However, due to the very short intervals there are still opportunities in the pursuit competition.

Pictures: OK Hochfilzen/EXPA/Adelsberger