Untouchable. World Cup leader Johannes Boe won the individual (20-kilometre event interspersed with four shooting sessions where each error adds a minute to the competitors’ final time) of the Oberhof World Championships, in Germany, Tuesday 14 February. The 29-year-old Norwegian is still undefeated in 2023 thanks to this twelfth victory in a row, individual events and relays combined. On Sunday, he could achieve an unprecedented grand slam in the individual events of the Worlds. This Tuesday, his compatriot Sturla Laegreid took second place and Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson completed the podium.
On the French side, Quentin Fillon Maillet has not succeeded in upsetting the hierarchy established since the start of the winter campaign. Without a win this season, a first since 2017-2018, the Jura player took fourth place in the event after a 19 out of 20 in front of the targets. Long in the race for the podium, the Frenchman missed his very last shot. The Olympic individual and pursuit champion, in Beijing in 2022, thus fails to win a first world title in an individual event.
“I’m not even sure it’s my brother, he’s so strong”
In Oberhof, the youngest of the Boe brothers won his first individual world championship title, the only event that was missing from his record at the Worlds. With this 28e world medal (16 in gold, 9 in silver, 3 in bronze), he joins Martin Fourcade (13 in gold, 10 in silver, 5 in bronze).
At the top of his discipline, Johannes Boe dominates thanks to his great consistency on the shooting range and the best ski times this season. On the individual, he pushed back the Swede Martin Ponsiluoma, ninth in the race but third best time in skiing, 1 minute 53 on the track. Quentin Fillon Maillet is relegated to him at 2 minutes 35 in the exercise. Enough to give yourself the right to make mistakes, gun in hand. After a foul on the first standing shot, then the second lying shot, Johannes Boe made up for his two-minute penalty in cross-country skiing.
“There is the feeling that we have arrived at the best we could do”estimated the French Siegfried Mazet, the shooting coach of the Norwegians, with Agence France-Presse (AFP) after the spectacular success of Johannes Boe in pursuit, Sunday February 12: 20 out of 20 in shooting and significantly more a minute margin on his nearest competitor on the finish line, despite a last loop skied as a lap of honor. “I spoke with Tarjei Boe, in Anterselva, [en janvier], who said to me: ‘I’m not even sure it’s my brother anymore, he’s so strong'”revealed Quentin Fillon Maillet to AFP.
Tomorrow, this world title, the sixteenth, will be drowned in the overflowing record of the Norwegian. But it is a crucial step in a larger quest: to become the best biathlete in history. After his double sprint-pursuit, on February 11 and 12, during these Oberhof Worlds, and his victory over the individual, he could achieve, in the event of victory over the mass start, Sunday February 19 at 12:30 p.m., an unprecedented grand slam on an edition of the Worlds by winning all (four) of the individual events. Before him, biathlon legends – Frenchman Martin Fourcade and Raphaël Poirée, Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, German Laura Dahlmeier, Norwegian Liv Grete Skjelbreid and Ukrainian Olena Zubrilova – all capped at three individual gold medals in fifteen worldwide.
Previously, Saturday February 18, he will still covet gold alongside his compatriots in the men’s relay, where the Norwegians have been undefeated since January 17, 2022 with seven victories in as many events.