It was another beautiful day in Ruhpolding for the relay with a little bit of changeable wind on the range but it didn’t cause too many problems…..for most people!
Results
It was a three-peat for the French team! It is the first time in their history that they have won three men’s relays in a row. The team of Emilien Claude, Fabien Claude, Quentin Fillon Maillet and Emilien Jacquelin used only six spares and cruised to victory with a 38.4 second margin at the finish line. The biggest pressure today was felt by Emilien Claude on leg 1 but he rose to the challenge using 1 spare and handing over to his brother in the lead. Fabien had a race on his hands until Soerum went on two penalty loops in the standing on leg two and after that France never saw anyone else, it was easy street for QFM and Jacquelin! It was Emilien Claude’s first World Cup win and first podium with his brother and it was well deserved!
Sweden took second place with a stellar leg from Martin Ponsiluoma dragging the team right back up to the front of the race. Viktor Brandt and Jesper Nelin were solid enough on legs 1 and 2 but slow with Ponsi staring over a minute down on France. He handed over to Sebastian Samuelsson in third place and he managed to overtake Slovenia for second early in the first lap and held on to it for the rest of the race. It’s their third podium this season and they are just warming up to defend their World Championship title in Lenzerheide!
Germany also overtook the Slovenian team to clinch third spot. They used 14 spare rounds but the team of Justus Strelow, Danilo Riethmueller, Johannes Kuehn and Philipp Nawrath were solid enough on the range and fast enough on skis to get ahead of the smaller nations much to the delight of the large German crowd.
Hits
The relay wasn’t so exciting for first place but luckily there was a lot of good things going on behind France. The Slovenians had a fabulous race with 6 spares Miha Dovzan, Jakov Fak and Anton Vidmar put Lovro Planko into second place for the final leg. He shot well but isn’t fast enough yet to hold off the likes of Samuelsson, Nawrath and eventually JT Boe too but 5th place is very impressive.
It was a similar story for Ukraine who were at the front of the race for a long time with great shooting using 7 spares but don’t have the ski speed to match the big guys.
Estonia were 9th claiming just their second top 10 finish in the men’s relay in 20 years. The last time they did it was an 8th place in 2005 in of course, Ruhpolding!
Lithuania also made in back to the Top 10 for only the second time ever in 10th.
The best relay legs today came from Emilien Claude, Jakov Fak, Ponsi and JT Boe.
Misses
What happened to Norway? Well Vebjoern Soerum, who don’t forget just won the Individual on Wednesday with 20/20, incurred two penalty loops on his standing shoot. Then Tarjei Boe did one on his standing shoot and not even the best efforts of JT Boe could get them back on the podium. They were 4th ending a 17 race podium streak in the men’s relay. The last time they missed the podium was in 2022!
Italy were 18th today after 2 penalty loops, but on the bright side Giacomel hit 10/10!
Extra bullets
None of the teams were lapped today which is excellent so everyone got to race and complete their legs which we love to see.
The best shooting team today was Canada with just 4 spares required. Adam Runnalls even led out of the range after shoot one on leg one!
Campbell Wright was racing with a stomach illness and so lost a lot of time on his leg. Unfortunately he will miss the Mass Start on Sunday.
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