# 2008–09 Biathlon World Cup – Relay Men

The 2008-09 Biathlon World Cup/Relay Men started on December 14, 2008 in Hochfilzen and will end on March 15, 2009 in Vancouver. Defending titlist is the Norwegian team.

## Competition format

The relay teams consist of four biathletes, who each ski 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi), each leg skied over three laps, with two shooting rounds; one prone, one standing. For every round of five targets there are eight bullets available, though the last three can only be single-loaded manually one at a time from spare round holders or bullets deposited by the competitor into trays or onto the mat at the firing line. If after eight bullets there are still misses, one 150 m penalty loop must be taken for each missed target remaining. The first-leg participants start all at the same time, and as in cross-country skiing relays, every athlete of a team must touch the team's next-leg participant to perform a valid changeover. On the first shooting stage of the first leg, the participant must shoot in the lane corresponding to their bib number (Bib #10 shoots at lane #10 regardless of position in race.), then for the remainder of the relay, the relay team shoots at the lane in the position they arrived (Arrive at the range in 5th place, you shoot at lane five.).

## 2007-08 Top 3 Standings

| Medal | Country | Points |
| Gold: | Norway | 196 |
| Silver: | Russia | 192 |
| Bronze: | Germany | 175 |

## Medal winners

| Event: | Gold: | Time | Silver: | Time | Bronze: | Time |
| Hochfilzen (1) details | Russia Ivan Tcherezov Maxim Tchoudov Maxim Maksimov Nikolay Kruglov, Jr. | 1:24:22.97 (0+0) (0+1) (0+0) (0+0) | Austria Daniel Mesotitsch Friedrich Pinter Dominik Landertinger Christoph Sumann | 1:26:11.08 (0+0) (0+0) (0+2) (0+0) | Ukraine Vyacheslav Derkach Andriy Deryzemlya Oleg Berezhnoy Serguei Sednev | 1:27:01.50 (2+0) (0+1) (0+0) (0+0) |
| Hochfilzen (2) details | Austria Daniel Mesotitsch Friedrich Pinter Tobias Eberhard Christoph Sumann | 1:21:23.18 (0+2) (0+3) (0+0) (0+0) | Sweden Magnús Jónsson Mattias Nilsson Björn Ferry Carl Johan Bergman | 1:22:34.33 (0+2) (1+5) (0+2) (0+3) | France Vincent Jay Vincent Defrasne Jean-Guillaume Béatrix Simon Fourcade | 1:22:39.44 (0+2) (0+0) (0+2) (0+1) |
| Oberhof details | Austria Daniel Mesotitsch Friedrich Pinter Dominik Landertinger Christoph Sumann | 1:19:36.6 (0+3) (0+3) (0+4) (0+2) | Germany Michael Greis Michael Rösch Arnd Peiffer Toni Lang | 1:19:55.8 (1+3) (0+2) (0+0) (0+4) | Norway Emil Hegle Svendsen Rune Brattsveen Halvard Hanevold Ole Einar Bjørndalen | 1:20:52.6 (0+1) (1+6) (0+2) (1+3) |
| Ruhpolding details | Norway Emil Hegle Svendsen Alexander Os Halvard Hanevold Ole Einar Bjørndalen | 1:24:54.0 (0+2) (0+1) (0+0) (0+2) | Germany Michael Rösch Christoph Stephan Arnd Peiffer Toni Lang | 1:26:14.2 (0+3) (0+1) (0+4) (0+2) | Austria Daniel Mesotitsch Friedrich Pinter Tobias Eberhard Christoph Sumann | 1:26:37.1 (0+5) (0+3) (0+3) (0+2) |
| World Championships details | Norway Emil Hegle Svendsen Lars Berger Halvard Hanevold Ole Einar Bjørndalen | 1:08:04.1 (1+3) (1+3) (0+0) (0+3) | Austria Daniel Mesotitsch Simon Eder Dominik Landertinger Christoph Sumann | 1:08:16.7 (0+1) (0+1) (0+3) (0+2) | Germany Michael Rösch Christoph Stephan Arnd Peiffer Michael Greis | 1:08:36.8 (0+2) (0+4) (0+1) (0+3) |
| Vancouver details | Sweden David Ekholm Mattias Nilsson Fredrik Lindström Carl Johan Bergman | 1:16:18.6 (0+1) (0+3) (0+2) (0+0) | France Vincent Jay Vincent Defrasne Martin Fourcade Simon Fourcade | 1:16:24.9 (0+2) (0+1) (0+0) (0+0) | Germany Simon Schempp Daniel Böhm Arnd Peiffer Michael Rösch | 1:16:35.0 (0+3) (0+3) (0+2) (0+2) |

## Final standings

| # | Country | HOC1 | HOC2 | OBE | RUH | WCH | VAN | Total |
| 1 | Austria | 54 | 60 | 60 | 48 | 54 | 40 | 276 |
| 2 | Norway | 43 | 38 | 48 | 60 | 60 | 43 | 254 |
| 3 | Germany | 32 | 43 | 54 | 54 | 48 | 48 | 247 |
| 4 | France | 30 | 48 | 43 | 38 | 43 | 54 | 226 |
| 5 | Sweden | 38 | 54 | 34 | 34 | 32 | 60 | 220 |
| 6 | Ukraine | 48 | 40 | 28 | 26 | 40 | 38 | 194 |
| 7 | Italy | 31 | 32 | 29 | 43 | 36 | 31 | 173 |
| 8 | Belarus | 34 | 36 | 40 | 22 | 22 | 34 | 166 |
| 9 | Czech Republic | 28 | 34 | 32 | 36 | 31 | 30 | 162 |
| 10 | Slovenia | 40 | 27 | 30 | 31 | 26 | 32 | 160 |
| 11 | Switzerland | 29 | 30 | 38 | 27 | 34 | 28 | 159 |
| 12 | Slovakia | 27 | 31 | 36 | 32 | 29 | – | 155 |
| 13 | United States | 26 | 28 | 31 | 40 | 20 | 29 | 154 |
| 14 | Russia | 60 | – | – | – | 38 | 36 | 134 |
| 15 | Latvia | 21 | 26 | 26 | 25 | 24 | – | 122 |
| 16 | Finland | 22 | 24 | 25 | 30 | 19 | – | 120 |
| 17 | Bulgaria | 19 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 30 | – | 118 |
| 18 | Canada | 36 | 29 | – | – | 25 | 26 | 116 |
| 19 | United Kingdom | 20 | 21 | 22 | 21 | 16 | 25 | 109 |
| 20 | Poland | 25 | – | 0 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 108 |
| 21 | Estonia | 24 | 0 | 24 | 29 | 27 | – | 104 |
| 22 | Japan | – | 25 | 27 | 23 | 23 | – | 98 |
| 23 | Kazakhstan | 23 | 23 | – | – | 21 | – | 67 |
| 24 | South Korea | – | 20 | – | 20 | 18 | – | 58 |
| 25 | Serbia | 18 | 19 | – | – | 15 | – | 52 |
| 26 | China | – | – | – | – | 17 | – | 17 |