Biathlon: Johannes Thingnes Bö won the overall World Cup

For the women, the decision will be made on Sunday in the final mass start race. Lisa Vittozzi has the best cards; the Italian, who is in top form, slipped into the yellow jersey thanks to her victory in the pursuit. The 23-year-old Tyrolean Anna Gandler successfully defended her sixth place in the sprint.

With a flawless final shooting, despite three missed shots, Gandler made the decisive advance (+1:13.4 min.), which led her to the Flower Ceremony behind four French women for the third time in a row. Third place (Justine Braisaz-Bouchet) was 54 seconds short. Lisa Hauser came 17th, Lea Rothschopf shone with a zero at the shooting range, but fell in the final lap and came 29th.

“It was a tough competition and almost my whole body hurts at the moment. The mistakes on the shooting range hurt a bit because it was the last shot twice,” said Gandler and spoke of sloppy mistakes. “In the end it was a really cool race thanks to the good placement.”

Bö went into the 12.5 km pursuit from the sprint with a lead of more than a minute over the field, but after two shooting errors by the favorite, Emilien Jacquelin was next to the Norsker in the third shooting. However, the Frenchman then incurred two penalties and only finished fourth behind the Swede Sebastian Samuelsson (+11.2 seconds) and his compatriot Eric Perrot (+11.6). Bö secured the big ball with his 84th World Cup victory, which means he is only ahead of his compatriot Ole Einar Björndalen (95). Simon Eder came 20th as the best Austrian.

The season ends on Sunday with the two mass start races. Vittozzi, who had already won the sprint, has a 61-point lead over the Norwegian Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and is better than 13th. On Saturday, the Italian snatched the small crystal ball for the discipline ranking from Julia Simon.