THE COMEBACK !!! Biathlon World Cup 1 (2015-2016) - Men 20km Race

THE COMEBACK !!! BMW IBU Biathlon World Cup 1 (2015-2016) - Men 20km Race
02.12.2015, Ostersund

Ole Einar Björndalen, King of the 20K !

Clean Shooting Victory
The "King of Biathlon" Ole Einar Björndalen of Norway proved more than worthy of his title once again claiming victory in the 20K individual this evening in 50:14.5. Björndalen, who turns 42 in January, shot clean, leaving Germany's Simon Schempp, with one penalty in second, 27.1 seconds back. Russia's clean-shooting Alexey Volkov finished third, 38.2 seconds back.

Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen and France's Quentin Fillon Maillet, both with two penalties tied for fourth, 1:44 back. Simon Fourcade of France finished sixth, also with two penalties, 2:04.4 back.

Winter Conditions

The 106 men on the starting list today faced "normal" winter conditions; snow mixed with sleet at times, minus 2 Celsius temperature and gusty winds that cut from left to right on the shooting range. The strong wind gusts forced virtually every man to seek shelter for standing on position 29 or 30, both protected by the new media/office building.

Tarjei Boe

Tarjei was the early leader, with a clean fast prone, but was just a few seconds of Schempp. More than 30 men, including Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen, Björndalen, Landertinger and the Red Bib Sergey Semenov of Ukraine were clean in this first prone stage, but the field quickly thinned out once they got to the first standing stage.

The first standing stage dropped the number of clean shooters down to less than a dozen. Tarjei had a penalty but was skiing fast enough to stay within a minute of Schempp who was now in control, 7 seconds ahead of Björndalen and Svendsen. Landertinger remained clean as did Alexey Volkov and Lowell Bailey of the USA.

Schempp in Control

Schempp looked almost unbeatable until he left one target standing in the second prone stage, opening the door for the tall Austrian who continued his hot hand with 15 hits in a row. Now Landertinger seemed in control until Volkov cleaned with ease and jumped into the lead ahead of him and Schempp. That did not last long as Björndalen cleaned again, looking like he was 10 years younger and claimed and put 19 seconds on the field.

Clean and a Win

The final standing stage saw Landertinger with two penalties, dropping him out of contention. Volkov cleaned as did Schempp and Fillon Maillet, who left in the top three spots. Björndalen final five shots would probably determine the podium and he literally nailed them, with just a single hesitation as he waited before taking his third shot. He left with an 18.8 seconds on Volkov; only a skiing disaster would keep him from the victory.

That did not happen and Ole Einar Björndalen was once again at the top of the biathlon world. In Saturdays' sprint, he will be in the Yellow Bib.
Biathlon Coupe du monde norvège matin fourcade
Biathlon Coupe du monde norvège matin fourcade
Biathlon Coupe du monde norvège matin fourcade

Видео THE COMEBACK !!! Biathlon World Cup 1 (2015-2016) - Men 20km Race канала International Biathlon Union