The Norwegian Johannes Boe won the large crystal globe rewarding the best biathlete of the season for the fifth time in his career after his victory in the pursuit on Saturday in Canmore (Canada), the penultimate race of the winter.
Boe (30 years old) is getting closer to the record of seven large crystal globes held by Martin Fourcade and he is only one length away from equaling his illustrious compatriot Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and the Swede Magdalena Forsberg, crowned six times each.
Boe had already finished at the top of the overall World Cup rankings between 2019 and 2021, and in 2023.
Winner of the pursuit on Saturday when his older brother Tarjei, second in the general classification, placed fifth, Johannes Boe is now out of reach, with 137 points ahead (1172 against 1035 pts) on the eve of the last race of the season, a mass start.
A victory earns 90 points.
Starting with more than a minute's lead inherited from his sprint victory the day before, Johannes Boe, 17 out of 20 in shooting, won ahead of the Swede Sebastian Samuelsson, second at 11 sec 2/10th, and the young Frenchman Eric Perrot, third at 11 sec 6/10th.
Emilien Jacquelin, after four missed targets, finished at the foot of the podium at 33 sec 5/10, just ahead of Tarjei Boe (2 faults, +37.9).
His success on Saturday allows Johannes Boe to overtake Fourcade in the number of individual victories in all competitions: he now stands at 84 (71 in the World Cup, 3 in the Olympic Games and 10 in the Worlds).
He now has Bjoerndalen's record of 95 victories in his sights.
Unlike last winter, the race for the big globe lasted until the penultimate race of the season.
Under the threat of his elder Tarjei until the final straight, Johannes Boe was able to tighten the bolts in money time.
Before the closing mass start, he has seven individual World Cup victories since the start of the season.
We must add his hat-trick of gold in four individual races at the World Championships in Nove Mesto (Czech Republic) in February, in pursuit, individual and mass start, and his seven medals obtained in seven races.