Andrei Rastorgujev | Photo: REUTERS/Lisa Leutner
Latvian biathlete Andrejs Rastorgujevs won a high fifth place in the world championship competition in the 15-kilometer distance with a joint start on Sunday in Oberhof. The fifth place for Rastorguyev is the highest ever in the world championships. Swedish biathlete Sebastian Samuelsson was crowned the champion.
In the first shooting while lying down, Rastorgujev, along with 13 other competitors, shot flawlessly, which allowed the Aluk native to return to the track in the leader group and be there before the next firing line. Also in the second prone shooting, the Latvian closed all five targets and started the distance as the fourth nine seconds behind the Frenchman Fabien Claude. Before the first standing shooting, Rastorgujev was in the group of the leading six biathletes, but without completing two goals, he fell to 12th place, 50 seconds behind Norwegian Johannes Tingnes Bä, who was in the lead.
Leader Beh had a 12-second lead over runner-up Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden, but the Norwegian made a mistake in the final shot and fell back to third. Martins Ponsilouma was the first to return to the track, Samuelson lost 1.2 seconds and Beh lost 6.8 seconds, while the rest of the followers were half a minute behind. Rastorgujev measured another penalty lap, but returned to the track in eighth place, but by the finish, the Latvian rose to fifth position.
Compared to the previous days, the snow in Oberhof had almost melted and it was raining at the race venue. This season, Rastorgujev had started once in this type of competition. In Rupolding, he took 19th place with four mistakes in shooting. In both World Cup competitions of this season, Norwegian biathletes took all the podiums, with Johannes Dahl winning in Annecy, and Johannes Tingnes Bä in Rupolding.
The women’s competition at a distance of 12.5 kilometers will start at 16.15. In two stages of the World Cup, the French women have had better luck, winning four of the six awarded places. In Annecy, the Austrian Lisa Therese Hauser was superior, but in Rupolding, the Frenchwoman Gillia Simone won.
Two years ago, the Norwegian Sturla Holm Lægreid and Hauser celebrated the victory in Pokluk. After the World Championship, the seventh stage of the World Cup will be held in the Czech city of Nove Mesto in Moravia in the turn of February and March, while the final of the ten stages of the World Cup is scheduled for mid-March in Oslo.
