The hopes of the Czech team for a better position ended at the last shooting, when Václavík corrected three times and fell to eleventh place, which he was able to pull down to the bottom of the top ten.
The relay was started by Krčmář, who tried in vain to keep the pace and missed the last early target in both shootings, finally passing to Štvrtecký in tenth with a loss of less than twenty-eight seconds to the leading quartet of France after the first stage.
The innkeeper was hustling on skis. “I take the two shooting mistakes on myself, but we don’t have a chance with those skis today, I had the feeling that someone was holding me on the rubber,” he said after his section.
This was also confirmed by Štvrtecký, who took over the baton in eleventh place and after two mistakes while shooting lying down kept it, but lost more seconds. In the end, he passed the eighth 1:26 minutes to the Norwegian leader. “With those skis, it was similar to Michal’s,” he muttered, and you could see how cold he was, which affected his feelings on the shooting range. The thermometer showed -9 degrees.
Mareček was not so bad at cross-country skiing. “I had two pairs ready,” explained the top scorer in the Czech quartet, who maintained seventh position in the third section and handed it over to Václavík.
His shooting did not go well, he corrected twice while lying down and three times while standing up and fell to eleventh place, eventually crossing the finish line tenth.
The Norwegians, in the strongest line-up with Johannes Thingnes Bö, built up a significant lead during the race. Vetle finisher Sjaastad Christiansen was allowed to ease up on the last lap and still won by more than twenty seconds ahead of France. The Germans finished third, although they had to do without the best two men of the endurance race – Roman Reese and Justus Strelow, who fell ill.
The World Cup in Östersund will continue on Friday with the women’s sprint.
