Overview
- Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen shot clean to win by 3.5 seconds over Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, with Emilien Jacquelin third at five seconds.
- Philipp Nawrath was the top German in 10th with one miss and a 26.2-second deficit, while Justus Strelow shot clean for 13th at +35.1.
- David Zobel placed 18th (+51.0) and Simon Kaiser 23rd (+1:04.3), giving both workable positions for the pursuit.
- Philipp Horn fell to 35th after four shooting errors and starts the pursuit about 1:21.5 down; Danilo Riethmüller was 51st with three misses.
- Pursuit races are set for Saturday (women 12:15, men 14:45) on ZDF and Eurosport, with soft, wet snow noted as a factor for ski speed and shooting.