LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Johannes Thingnes Boe’s blistering win in the men’s 10 km sprint on Saturday made him the most successful biathlete at the World Championships as he eclipsed Norwegian compatriot Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, and he might not be done yet.
The 31-year-old was tied with Bjoerndalen on 20 gold medals before his latest victory, and though he has said he will retire at the end of the season, there are still plenty of races left for him at the current championships to add to his tally before he skis off into the sunset as one of the sport’s greats.
“It feels amazing. What a fantastic day, one of my best sprints ever. Getting the 21st victory in the World Championships to make history in my last championships here is unbelievably good. I don’t think I could have had a more perfect competition, and I could not be happier today,” he said.
“Being able to pass Ole Einar Bjoerndalen himself is a big milestone, in my book at least.”
Thingnes Boe hit all of his ten shots and was more than 27 seconds faster than New Zealand-born American silver medallist Campbell Wright to pass Bjoerndalen, who was known as the “King of Biathlon”, in terms of gold medals, but his total of 38 world championship medals is seven short of his countryman, who took home 45 in total.
Unfortunately for Thingnes Boe’s many fans watching back home, they didn’t get to see his final series of shots live as the TV production missed them, leading to strong criticism from the 51-year-old Bjoerndalen, who was working for Norwegian TV as an analyst.
“Today it was one out of 10 points. It was terrible. You cannot miss the big favourite in the standing (shoot),” he said. “I cannot describe how catastrophic that is for a TV production.”
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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