By Philip O’Connor
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedes Sebastian Samuelsson and Hannah Oeberg pulled off stunning victories to win gold in their respective mass-start races on the final day of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships in Oberhof, Germany, on Sunday.
Samuelsson shot a perfect 20 for 20 on the range before making a punishing uphill break to shake off the challenge of dominant Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Boe and secure a shock victory in the men’s 15km event.
Fellow Swede Marin Ponsiluoma finished 9.6 seconds after Samuelsson to secure the silver to leave Boe with the bronze medal, with the Norwegian saying “the blinds came down” as he tried to no avail to meet the Swedish challenge.
“This is the best race of my career, without a doubt,” a beaming Samuelsson told Swedish broadcaster SVT.
“I had energy left and it was tactically perfectly planned. To become world champion when Johannes Thingnes Boe is dominating and thinking the rest of us are fighting for silver means a lot,”
Later, Oeberg, a two-time Olympic champion, prevailed in a thrilling women’s 12.5km race, taking the lead on the last lap and eventually edging out Norway’s Ingrid Tandrevold by a margin of 4.8 seconds.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; editing by Clare Fallon)
