Twenty-seven teams in the mixed relay kicked off these Championships on beautiful afternoon in the Südtirol Arena. Clear blue skies framed the surrounding mountain peaks with the temperature at 1C and very light winds on the shooting range. Austria’s Lisa Theresa Hauser was the first women out after a five-shot clean first prone stage.

France was immediately put in a hole when the usually reliable Julia Simon picked up a prone penalty, falling 37 seconds back. Lisa Vittozzi swung things back in the direction of Italy with a fast clean standing stage to move into the lead, heading to the first exchange. Yet Olsbu Røiseland despite a spare round quickly jumped ahead of the home team. The Norwegian tagged Eckhoff just 4 seconds before her rival sent Dorothea Wierer on her way.

Eckhoff Flies
Wierer shot fast in prone, used a single spare and got away in the lead, with Austria’s Katharina Innerhofer just behind while Eckhoff with two spares was 10 seconds back. The tables turned in standing as the Norwegian reclaimed the top spot with five perfect shots giving her a 6 second advantage over Wierer who again needed a spare round.
Eckhoff flew around the next 2 km stretching her lead to a dozen seconds when she tagged Tarjei. Czech Republic’s Marketa Davidova tagged Ondrej Moravec in second, .4 seconds ahead of Lukas Hofer. Denise Herrmann, with a penalty kept Germany in the mix with her strong skiing, but 7th, 41 seconds back.

Tarjei and Hofer
Tarjei carefully closed all five prone targets before Hofer or Moravec fired a shot. Both matched the Norwegian to hold their positions, 10 seconds back. Arnd Peiffer also cleaned to move the Germans up to fifth. The Norwegian needed two spares while Hofer used five shots to grab the lead, with Moravec and Tarjei just behind. Switzerland, Germany and Ukraine were locked in a tight battle 40 seconds back. Tarjei immediately jumped ahead of Hofer as they headed to the final exchange, but the Italian stayed on his heels. Johannes and Dominik Windisch left almost simultaneously with the Czech Republic now 5 seconds back, while Switzerland and Ukraine were up to 33 seconds back in fourth and fifth, 7 seconds ahead of Germany in 6th.

Johannes Boe close it out!
The top two went shot-for-shot in prone with Johannes just a bit faster than Windisch, while Krcmar matched to stay in third but 16 seconds back. Pidruchnyi cleaned to move into sole possession of the fourth spot, 12 seconds ahead of Benedikt Doll. Windisch moved in front on the tracks by a half second. Tarjei and Windisch both missed two shots. However Johannes closed his last target faster, leaving with a 9.3 second lead over Windisch, while Krcmar with 1 spare solidified the Bronze medal, 22 seconds back.