Johannes Thingnes Bø looked very tired and halfhearted in the last race of the season and ended up making a spot landing in the fight for the overall World Cup. "I never thought that. When I came back from my baby break in Pokljuka, I thought maybe I could make it at Holmenkollen, but with the shortened season I didn't believe in it anymore. It was inconceivable that I could do it", he said. He was probably surprised by his French friend's very emotional evening post because of his retirement, at least he left a completely different impression in today's race than yesterday: Even on the track at the beginning of the race, he was not as strong as usual, then he shot at least prone extremely slow and nevertheless had to go into the penalty loop - but at the decisive moment in the last shooting he cleared all targets in contrast to hi oppenents. In the end, he finished fourth in the race with Fourcade's final victory and was two points ahead of the Frenchman in the overall World Cup. "On the last lap it was like hell, I almost started screaming in pain. It is very windy here, I made a few mistakes, but it was still enough", said the Norwegian, who will miss Martin Fourcade: "It was sad news, it was a hate-love relationship with this man. From a Norwegian point of view, he made us a lot of trouble, but we did him too. But that's why you watch biathlon. He was a great role model for the French team, but I'm sure they will follow in his footsteps." Due to the close fight for the overall World Cup and the retirement of a great athlete, who waited for all athletes at the finish and said goodbye with a handshake, the French triple victory almost went under: Quentin Fillon Maillet was pleased with a second place after a sprint with poor skiing performance at the end of the biathlon season. Alexander Loginov (RUS, Fischer ***) finished seventh ahead of Martin Ponsiluoma (SWE, Fischer ***).
In the women's pursuit, Denise Herrmann (GER, Fischer ***) and Franziska Preuß (GER, Fischer ***) first continued to ski ahead, but in the second prone stage, the leaders had to shoot at strong gusts of wind that they received many penalties, while half a minute later many athletes shot clean. But Tiril Eckhoff (NOR, Fischer ***), who was in the lead and on her way to win the overall World Cup after the third shooting despite a total of three penalty loops so far, was not spared from this and had to ski three more loops after the last shooting. That threw her back just behind Doro Wierer (ITA), who ended up defending the large crystal globe in eleventh place behind the Norwegian. Kaisa Mäkäräinen had taken full risk on the track from the start and set the best times on every lap. However, in the first three shootings, she also had to accept four penalties, which threw her back to 17th place. With a perfect final shooting at the end of her career, she made it into the chasing group of the maiden winner Julia Simon (FRA) and fought for the podium. In the end she finished fourth, but was especially happy about the last shooting: "I shot clean in the last shooting!", beamed the 37-year-old. "I did not expect to finish like this here in Kontiolahti. But I am happy that it ends here. My friends, all the girls with whom I have competed here, my biathlon family, I will miss most!" Monika Hojnisz-Starega (POL, Fischer **) finished fifth. Ninth place went to Franziska Preuss ahead of Tiril Eckhoff, who narrowly missed winning the overall World Cup despite a good starting position.
* = Fischer skis
** = Fischer skis and bindings
*** = Fischer skis, bindings and boots
