Birkenthal shot lying down without mistakes, but was forced to spend all three spare cartridges while standing, passing the baton to Misem in 16th place, 51.2 seconds behind the leader Estonia, for which Rene Zahna spent one spare cartridge in standing shooting in the first stage, 0.4 seconds ahead of the Czech Republic and by 0.9 seconds – Kazakhstan.
Sturla Holm Lægreids measured the standing penalty circle for the favorite Norway, finishing the stage in 12th place. Eric Perot of France finished the stage eighth after a penalty round in standing shooting.
The mass in prone shooting was free, but Fabien Claude for France and Christo Siemers for Estonia each earned two penalty rounds. Meanwhile, Germany took the lead, ahead of the Czech Republic and Sweden.
In standing shooting, Mise shot five targets with three spare cartridges, but German Johannes Keen earned a penalty round, and two more – Siemer.
The Norwegian Tarjei Be finished the stage first, ahead of the Czechs and Swedes, Germany took the seventh place, and France – the ninth. Mise passed the baton to Aleksandar Patrijukas in 17th place, one minute and 46.6 seconds behind Be.
Patryuks used all three spare cartridges in the prone shooting, but he did not have enough of them in the standing shooting as well, measuring two penalty rounds. He handed over the baton to Rastorgujev in 22nd place, losing five minutes and 18.6 seconds to Johannes Tingnes Be.
Rastorgujev very quickly shot all five targets lying down, but standing up he needed two spare cartridges, finishing in 16th place and losing four minutes and 49.3 seconds to the winners. Latvia also spent 14 spare cartridges without two penalty rounds.
Since the 14th place in 2011, this is Latvia’s best result in this discipline.
In the last shooting, the gold medals were lost to Norway, which was awarded three penalty laps by Vetle Shostad Kristiansen.
This allowed the Swedes to celebrate their first victory in the world championships, who finished the track in one hour, 16 minutes and 22.6 seconds with Viktor Brant, Jesper Nelin, Martin Ponsiluom and Sebastian Samuelson, having used up nine spare cartridges in the race.
The Norwegians finished second with four penalty laps and 11 spare cartridges, 11.8 seconds behind, while the French were a second slower with three penalty laps and 13 spare cartridges.
The Germans finished fourth with a penalty circle and eight spare cartridges, the USA biathletes finished fifth with eight spare cartridges, which is the best achievement ever in this discipline, and the Italians finished sixth – with a penalty circle and 11 spare cartridges.
Estonians finished 17th in 24 quartet competitions, and Lithuanians – 20th.
Last year, the Latvian men’s quartet was in 18th place, which was the team’s best result since 2011, but the best results of all time can be traced back to the turn of the century, when the fifth, sixth and ninth place was won in the relay in three championship races in a row.
In the women’s competition, Sanita Buliņa spent two spare cartridges in the prone shooting, but closed all five targets with five cartridges in the standing shooting, passing the baton to Bendika in 14th place, one minute and 26.1 seconds behind the leader Frenchwoman Lou Jeanmont.
Italy, Slovakia and the USA each earned two penalty laps in the first stage.
In the second stage, Bendika spent two spare cartridges in both shootings, at the time of the relay change, Latvia was in 11th place, one minute and 29.6 seconds behind the leader.
In the shooting, the Frenchwoman Sophie Chavot made a mistake in both firing lines, passing the baton only in the eighth place, 45.5 seconds behind Estonia.
The leader after the second stage was Estonia, which had spent three spare cartridges, by 19.2 seconds ahead of Norway, whose second stage was run by Jūni Arnekleiva, and by 23.3 seconds – Germany.
Sabule used a spare cartridge in each of the shootings, handing over the baton to Sandra Buliņa in 13th place, four minutes and 19.3 seconds behind the Frenchwoman Žistine Breza-Bouchet.
The second 17.9 seconds behind the French women were the Swedish women, and the third – 28.8 seconds behind France – the Estonian women.
Sandra Buliņa earned two penalty laps in prone shooting and was overtaken by a lap, ranking 15th in the competition of 21 quartets.
The victory was won by France, who earned two penalty laps and spent 11 spare cartridges, with Gillia Simone running the last stage, finishing in one hour, 15 minutes and 0.8 seconds and becoming world champions in this discipline for the first time.
For Simona, it was the fourth gold medal in Nove Mesto and the fifth medal in five starts.
With one penalty lap and 12 rounds to spare, Sweden finished second, losing 38.3 seconds to the winners and repeating their best performance at the world championships, finishing second for the third time.
Germany was third with nine spare cartridges used, one minute and 14.2 seconds behind the champions.
Estonia’s Johanna Taliherma used three spare rounds in both shoots and finished fourth, losing one minute and 40.1 seconds to France. Until now, the highest place for Estonian women was the tenth place won last year.
Ukraine finished fifth, while Poland finished sixth.
The best result of the Latvian women’s team in the world championships so far were the two 20th places won in 2008 and 2009.
At the end of the championship on Sunday, there will be a competition with a joint start, in which Baiba Bendika and Andrejs Rastorgujevs ensured their participation with good results in the individual competitions.
In the continuation of the season, four more stages of the World Cup are planned, the next of which will take place in Oslo at the turn of February and March.
