The expected top two in the men's relay – Finland 13:s

The men's biathlon relay went as expected under the control of Norway. Nor was it a surprise after the opening competitions that Sweden finished second and Germany third. The Norwegian team was, in order, Sturla Holm Laegreid, Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen, Tarjei Bö and Johannes Thingnes Bö.

Sweden lost to Norway by 39.2 seconds, Germany by 51.7 seconds.

The Norwegian quartet cleared the competition with nine spare cartridges. Johannes Thingnes Bö had to use three spare cartridges in the berth, but avoided penalty rounds. In the vertical position, he needed one spare round to get all the boards down. He did not consider his own day to be perfect at all, but shared praise with his teammates.

- In prone shooting, I had difficulties with the fifth board, Bö, who experienced the stick-crook in the last round, said on the IBU website.

Finland finished 13th. The team was Tuomas Harjula, Tero Seppälä, Jaakko Ranta and Olli Hiidensalo. Harjula had to go through the penalty round once. Ranta did the best at the shooting range, as he didn't need a single spare cartridge.

- All in all, a very good bet from our team. We had set goals for the top ten, so there was room for improvement in the next post. The shooting hit the button today, there was certainly nothing to improve, zeros from the magazine. I still had a lot of room for improvement in skiing today. The equipment side worked, but towards next week we have to look a little at the signs of progress with the coaching, Ranta said.

See all results: biathlonresults.com
Text: Heidi Lehikoinen
Photo: Manzoni/IBU