Sebastian Samuelsson took two podium finishes at the Swedish roller ski biathlon championships in Östersund this past weekend, shooting with a rebuilt rifle for the first time in a real competitive setting.

He placed third in Saturday’s 20km individual race and second in Sunday’s sprint. Martin Ponsiluoma swept both men’s titles over the weekend. Emil Nykvist and Malte Stefansson filled out the other podium spots in the individual and sprint, respectively.

What made the weekend notable for Samuelsson had less to do with the results and more to do with what he was shooting with. Östersund marked the first real competitive test of a new rifle, after a single test race earlier in the summer.

At roughly 4.2 kilograms, Samuelsson’s rifle had long been one of the heaviest in the sport, a detail that rarely escaped notice whenever officials pulled it aside for a weapon check.

“Every time I ended up in one of those checks, they laughed at me. ‘It’s heavy, but you’re strong,’ they said,” Samuelsson said to Expressen.se.

A major overhaul was not originally on his radar. His shooting had held steady from one season to the next, and it was curiosity more than necessity that pushed him toward changes this spring.

“It’s one of those things you wish you’d known about and done something about three years ago,” he said.

That curiosity eventually led him to Oberhof, where, after pushing for the opportunity, he had a new stock custom-built over the summer. The switch also meant a change in manufacturer, from a Norwegian rifle to a German one.

Cutting weight, about half a kilogram in the end, was the change Samuelsson expected to matter most. That has not turned out to be the case.

“It feels almost secondary. I think the rifle works and suits me much better,” he said. “It’s worked really well, but of course it’s a bit different, and it takes some time to get used to. So far I’m very positive and confident it will work.”

Asked how the new rifle felt heading into the harder training sessions before Östersund, Samuelsson said the adjustment was still ongoing:

“It’s different. When you’ve done the harder sessions, you notice something’s missing a little.”

He missed four targets in Saturday’s 20km individual race and two more in Sunday’s sprint, six in total across the weekend. Asked whether the lighter weight left him more exposed to misses, he pointed instead to an improvement in the standing position.

“In the prone position I don’t notice a huge difference, but standing, I feel I’ve gotten the rifle’s center of gravity much closer to my body,” he said. “That gives me a lot less movement. So even though the rifle isn’t lighter, the weight is distributed in a better way.”

On the women’s side in Östersund, Anna Magnusson won Saturday’s 15km individual race ahead of Elvira Öberg, who turned it around to win Sunday’s sprint over Johanna Skottheim. Ella Halvarsson finished third in both races.

With the World Cup season approaching, Östersund gives Samuelsson one data point on the new rifle under competitive pressure.

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