Biathlon World Cup race – men's 10 km sprint, March 2, 2023 Nové Město na Moravě, Žďársko. Race winner Johannes Thingnes Bö from Norway.
Oslo – Norwegian biathlete Johannes Thingnes Bö won the overall ranking of the World Cup for the fourth time in his career. The second man in the running order, Sturla Holm Laegreid, will not take part in Thursday's endurance race in Östersund due to an infection with the coronavirus, thus losing a theoretical chance to overtake his compatriot.
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Photo gallery: Biathlon World Cup 2022/23
Laegreid's non-participation in Thursday's race was confirmed to AFP by a spokesperson for the Norwegian Biathlon Federation. “He feels good, but he prefers to wait at least until Sunday,” he said. On Sunday, there is a mass start race in Östersund.
Laegreid got infected even before the World Cup races in Nové Město in Moravia and did not start in Vysočina. Bö won both the sprint and the chase in Nové Město, before which he was also tested positive for covid-19, just like his brother Tarjei. The siblings, like Laegreid, will not start in the endurance race in Östersund or in the relay on Saturday, and they will also participate first on Sunday.
29-year-old Bö, five-time world champion from February's championship in Oberhof, is ahead of Laegreid at the top of the standings 399 points. After Thursday, only 360 will be available, and since the worst results will not be deleted after the rule change unlike in previous years, Bö's triumph is certain.
Official confirmation of his overall triumph was only formality. He won thirteen of the sixteen individual races in the SP and missed the podium only once, in the very first race of the season in November in Kontiolahti.
The younger of the Bö brothers won the World Cup in 2019-2021. With his fourth triumph, he caught up with Frenchmen Raphaël Poirée and Frank Ullrich from the former GDR in the historical table. Only Norwegian Ole Einar Björndalen and Swedish Magdalena Forsberg (both 6) and French record holder Martin Fourcade (7) have more large crystal globes.
