After her forced break, Franziska Preuß was just happy to be back.
“The last two weeks have been hard. I’m glad I was able to start. It was very good for my motivation not to have to watch the race on the couch, but to be there,” said the 31-year-old after finishing 18th in the Le Grand-Bornand biathlon sprint at “Eurosport”. It was a solid World Cup comeback that she can build on.
A podium place was not to be expected at the start of the 2.0 season anyway after the double infection with corona and influenza. At the shooting range she cleared all but the last target. The mistake was “super stupid” because she became a bit restless and lacked “ultimate conviction”.
And on the track, as expected, she wasn’t able to hold her own, being over a minute behind the best in 24th place. “You had a bit of a taste of blood right from the first round because your lungs aren’t used to it yet,” Preuß reported on “ZDF”.
National coach happy with comeback
After the 7.5 kilometers she was 1:00.1 minutes behind the Swede Hanna Öberg, who won cleanly. “I am satisfied with Franzi’s performance after a week of relaxed training,” said women’s national coach Kristian Mehringer. “But today we couldn’t afford anything.”
The best German was the faultless Anna Weidel in 17th place (+58.1 seconds), Vanessa Voigt also didn’t have to do an extra lap and crossed the finish line in 19th place (+1:02.6 minutes).
This means that the trio will be almost united in the pursuit on Saturday (12.15 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport). “I hope that I’m doing a little better in terms of running and that I can gain a few places,” said Preuss. Julia Tannheimer (29th), Janina Hettich-Walz (37th) and Julia Kink (41st) finished behind in the field.
Preuß has to bring out comeback qualities
Last year, Preuß won the pursuit in the French Alps and came second in the sprint and mass start – behind her teammate Selina Grotian (Corona), who was still missing. But now, 52 days before the first Olympic race in Antholz, it’s about building up the shape for the Olympics and breaking the norm.
Because she can shelve the defense of the overall World Cup after her weak start in Östersund and the failure in Hochfilzen, but that wasn’t her primary goal for the season anyway.
Now Preuß, who has repeatedly been slowed down in her career by health problems, has to quickly come to terms with this new setback. “It was a difficult situation. The inner flame was not extinguished, but it was definitely more subdued,” she admitted on “ZDF”.
Mentally, “there’s always so much energy when you’re sitting at home. I just wanted to have competitions now so that you don’t invest so much the whole summer and then you watch again for a whole trimester,” said Preuß, who is currently only watching from weekend to weekend: “I hope that I get more self-confidence and more conviction race after race.” Their motto: Step by step towards the big goal of the Olympics.