Öberg sister act takes victory in sprint, challenging day for Finnish women

Sweden’s Hanna Öberg took her second win of the season in the women’s sprint and was in fine company when her younger sister Elvira Öberg came third. For the younger Öberg, the podium finish was the first in her career at the World Cup. France’s Anais Chevalier-Bouchet placed second.

Öberg cleared the race without any missed shots and also left the clean shooting Frenchman 9.6 seconds behind. The Swede got to compete in the cup leader’s Yellow Bib and enjoyed it.

“I'm really happy with my race, especially the shooting. I felt very confident on the shooting range,” Öberg said happily.

In addition to her own victory, she was delighted to see her younger sister make it onto the podium.

“It's a really big thing to be on the podium at the same time as Elvira. It comes as no surprise to me that she is so strong. We benefit from each other every day,” Öberg said and said the siblings are helping each other to further develop.

Anais Chevalier-Bouchet gave birth to her firstborn last year and has now made a strong return to racing after the gap year.

“It was a perfect race: clean shooting and good skiing,” Chevalier-Bouchet said happily.

Elvira Öberg was naturally very happy about winning the first podium place in his career. Her training season has been successful in every way, and by Thursday at the latest, it was seen that the 21-year-old Swede has taken another step forward.

“I knew that I was in a good position after the prone and then one miss in standing. In the last round, I knew I had to give it my all,” Öberg said.

For the Finnish women, the day was challenging, and none of them reached the top 60. Suvi Minkkinen, who came in 71st place, was the best. She missed a single shot in each stage.

“My starting pace was lacking in the previous sprint, so my goal was to start out hard now. It was good going until I skied the Wall Climb a bit too fast on my first loop. A little more patience is required in that part. It was a challenging race from then on. Hopefully next time the right starting pace will fall into place. I still don't think there is a problem with my shooting,” Minkkinen said.

Check all the results: biathlonresults.com
Image: Manzoni/IBU