Norway won the relay in the Oberhof grinder

The two favourites, France and Norway, got off to very solid starts. After the opening leg, both teams were already more than 10 seconds clear of their closest rivals. Finland, however, had a disastrous start. Under different circumstances they could have hoped for their first medals, but an early penalty loop immediately put them two minutes behind.

On the second leg, both Norway and France ran into trouble. Johannes Dale and Emilien Jacquelin each picked up two penalty loops, leaving Norway 42 seconds down and France 56 seconds behind. The lead group suddenly consisted of six teams: Switzerland, Czechia, Germany, Estonia, Austria and even Sweden. Jesper Nelin and Malte Stefansson produced a small miracle for Sweden, as it is usually Ponsiluoma and Samuelsson who have to rescue the team and hope for no more than a podium — but not this time.

That group then predictably broke apart. Quentin Fillon Maillet managed to cut the gap to the leader down to 18 seconds, while Martin Uldal even finished the third leg in first place. He was not alone, though, with Philipp Navrat and Martin Ponsiluoma right on his skis. Italy sat 30 seconds back, with none other than Tommaso Giacomel on the track. Czechia and Estonia were also close by — unlikely contenders, but in such weather, anything was possible.

The final leg set up a fascinating showdown between Christiansen, Samuelsson, Zobel, Perrot and Giacomel. At the prone shooting, Zobel shot cleanly. Perrot and Christiansen needed two spare rounds each and left the range eight seconds behind the German. Samuelsson narrowly avoided the penalty loop but was already 24 seconds back. Giacomel also just scraped through and, despite his speed, trailed by around 30 seconds, even losing a position to Czech skier Hornig.

By the final shooting, Perrot and Christiansen had predictably caught Zobel, while the Swede and the Italian had closed in slightly. Then came a moment the fans will remember fondly: the entire leading trio took a very long time on the range, while Samuelsson and Giacomel needed only six rounds. They headed out onto the final lap in the following order:

Perrot — leader
Christiansen +4
Zobel +8
Samuelsson +9
Giacomel +12

There was no epic finish like Ruhpolding 2015, when five athletes sprinted together to the line. Christiansen quickly caught Perrot, while Samuelsson and Zobel only managed to reach the leading pair near the top of the final climb. On the descent to the finish, there was nothing left to gain.

Norway took the victory, France finished second, Sweden third, and the Italian managed to steal one position from Germany right on the finishing straight.

Twenty-five seconds behind this grinder of a race, the Czech team crossed the line. From there on, the gaps grew much larger, as shown in the results table below.