The Norwegian Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen won the mass start (15 km) in Anterselva (Italy) on Sunday, counting for the Biathlon World Cup, ahead of his compatriots Johannes Dale and Vebjoern Soerum, for the last race before the 2023 Worlds.
With only one fault on the shooting range, Vetle Christiansen resisted the return of Johannes Dale, the fastest on the last three-kilometer loop but who was penalized with two faults.
Christiansen maintained a ten-second lead over Dale. Third in the race, Vebjoern took advantage of the Dale locomotive on the last lap to secure his second podium of the winter after a third place in the Östersund sprint (Sweden) at the start of the season.
The only biathlete to have cleared the 20 targets on the shooting range, including ten from the standing shot in a fantastic time, Quentin Fillon Maillet started the last loop in 2nd place, 10 seconds behind Christiansen, but lacked gliding to resist the two Norwegians behind him.
He took fourth place, six seconds from a podium which still eludes the French men’s team by a fraction, after Emilien Jacquelin’s fourth places last week in Ruhpolding (Germany) in the sprint (at less than a second from 3rd place) and the pursuit (seven seconds).
Leader of the general classification of the World Cup, Johannes Boe took 5th place and consolidates his yellow bib compared to his brother Tarjei, sixth on Sunday.