Marketa Davidova takes all the glory at Pokljuka’s individual race

Czech Marketa Davidova cleared the shooting in the 15 km individual race and took the sensational win at IBU World Championships Biathlon 2021 Pokljuka. Sweden’s Hanna Oeberg with a single penalty finished second, 27.9 seconds behind, while Norway’s Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold claimed the third place with the same shooting outcome, 1:04.0 behind.

Today’s individual race also determined the globe winner in this discipline among six contestants for the trophy. The defending champion, Italy’s Dorothea Wierer started the race strong, together with Austria’s Lisa Theresa Hauser, Norway’s Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Oeberg. Later, two missed shots ended Wierer’s dreams of another medal.

It was Hauser, who got into the lead, but earned two penalties in the last shooting. This opened the way for Oeberg, who was dominant on the track and missed only once. But it was Marketa Davidova that surprised everybody with her impeccable shooting and fast skiing, being slower only than Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff, to secure her first World Champion title.

The 24-year-old Czech, who uses Slovene rifle butt, was obviously over the moon with the achievement: “It’s totally nice and I am really happy. I was really lucky today, I did not have the middle hits, I think. I was calm before the shooting but when I hit the 19th shot I was like ‘Oh my god, I need to hit the last one’. I was nervous but I just pushed the bullet with my mind to the target. I was surprised that I was quite calm and just wanted to do my job like in the first standing. I was so happy that I shot clean but the last lap was really hard for me. I was hoping I had enough advantage comparing to the other girls, because I was really dead.”

“Today, I am really happy how I bounced back from the previous races. The sprint and especially the pursuit were really hard for me. I didn’t even recognize my own shape and my skiing. I am happy about my performance today. I was pretty good at letting the disappointment go away. We have a really good atmosphere in the team with boys taking a lot of medals. That also helped me a lot to think about different things and to still be in a good mood,” silver medalist Oeberg commented the race.

Tandrevold improved in every race in Pokljuka, being 21^st in sprint and 10^th in pursuit, and despite a late start secured herself a spot on the podium. She was happy with the result: “I did a really good job in my head today. I tried to turn the last shooting into something positive, since I have been in this position many times, fighting in the last shooting for high places and also medals. I was focusing today and tried to think that I know how to handle it. Even though it was really tough it was an amazing last loop, because all the coaches and vaxmen, everyone ran out to the course and tried to cheer me up every uphill, every turn, and every downhill. It was amazing and I am looking forward to share this medal with my team.”

Hauser ended just off the podium (+1:52.2), Russian Svetlana Mironova was fifth (+2:05.8), while Switzerland’s Selina Gasparin completed the top-six (+2:09.6).

Since this was the last race in this discipline of the season, we got two globe winners. Wierer and Hauser collected 103 points each, to win the individual score.