Sebastian Samuelsson claimed silver in Sunday's biathlon pursuit in Östersund after a dramatic finish. Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet won ahead of the Swede by 6.7 seconds. Samuelsson credits the crowd's support for carrying him through the final stretch.
In Sunday's biathlon pursuit in Östersund, Sebastian Samuelsson started fifth, 25 seconds behind Norway's Johan-Olav Botn. He shot clean in the first two prone stages and advanced to second behind Botn. In the third prone, Samuelsson missed one while Botn missed two.
In the decisive fourth standing stage, both Samuelsson and Botn missed one each, but Quentin Fillon Maillet shot clean and took the lead. On the final lap, Fillon Maillet held off Samuelsson, who surged strongly to finish 6.7 seconds behind the winner, ahead of Botn in third.
"The crowd carried me forward," Samuelsson told SVT. "It was the crowd that made it. I thought long about whether to hold back the sprint for the final stretch; I was tired, but I decided to go for it."
Samuelsson, who placed fifth in Saturday's sprint, was satisfied despite the miss in the final standing. "Unfortunately, I missed one shot in the last," he said to Dagens Nyheter. "Of course, to win you need to shoot clean on the last, but I'm very pleased with how I handled the shooting range today."
Among other Swedes, Martin Ponsiluoma finished twelfth, Malte Stefansson fifteenth, Viktor Brandt twenty-fifth, Jesper Nelin forty-second, and Melker Nordgren fifty-first.