10:19.
Elvira Oeberg had warned us. Over the last few hours, the Swede had revealed on her social networks that she wasn’t “feeling 100%” and that she was suffering from a cold. And while she was considering skipping only the sprint scheduled for Thursday, the Scandinavian won’t be appearing once this weekend at the Biathlon World Cup in Antholz (Italy).

Still weakened, the world number three is unable to defend her chances in the sprint, pursuit and women’s relay. “Elvira isn’t feeling any better today. That‘ s why we’ve taken the final decision not to run anything this weekend,” explained Johannes Lukas, Sweden’s head coach, in a press release. At altitude, we have to be very careful and the aim now is for her to recover 100% and for us to be able to work on acclimatising to the altitude and training for the World Championships.”