Shooting remains the Achilles heel of German biathletes. At the home World Cup in Ruhpolding, the DSV ski hunters ran after the music again.
At the end of the World Cup weekend in Ruhpolding, the Germans ran past the podium in the 12.5-kilometer pursuit race on Sunday (January 18, 2026).
The problem was once again the shooting. No DSV ski hunter made it through without mistakes. Philipp Nawrath lost the podium with three penalties, came tenth as the best German and at least underlined his good running form. Nawrath was third fastest in the entire field, but struggled with his shooting performance. “If you start with a mistake, you will initially be dissatisfied. In the end it was a close call, but still a good race.”said Nawrath on ZDF.
Dale-Skjedal celebrates first win of the season
The decision in front of 23,300 spectators in the Chiemgau Arena was only made during the wild final shooting. The leaders around sprint winner Sebastian Samuellon made mistakes. The Norwegian Johannes Dale-Skjedal took advantage of this weakness, hitting everything in the last shooting and beating Frenchman Eric Perrot on the last climb. Dale-Skjedal ran from tenth place to victory and celebrated his first win of the season. The Swede Martin Ponsiluoma won the fight for third place on the podium despite four mistakes.
Johannes Dale-Skjevdal in action
Riethmüller scores points in the fight for the Olympics
Danilo Riethmüller (2 errors, fourth best running time) also felt like he was the winner. The 26-year-old from Blankenburg, who did not meet the Olympic standard, improved by 30 places and came in 25th to position himself for the Winter Games even without the standard. The DSV has to make its recommendation on Sunday evening. Riethmüller has the best chance of being the fifth athlete on the list even without Norm. However, sports director Felix Bitterling has not yet shown his cards in this regard.
David Zobel no longer has to tremble. He met the standard by finishing ninth in the sprint on Saturday. 24 hours later, Zobel missed the next top ten result. With two 2 penalties, he finished 15th, 47.3 seconds behind winner Dale-Skjedal.
Justus Strelow doesn’t have to worry about the Olympics either. In Ruhpolding things went better again for the fast shooter at the shooting range. He did well with one mistake, but had major problems on the cross-country ski trail and only ended up in 32nd place. Lucas Fratzscher (28th after the sprint) shot himself out of the hunting race in the first shooting test. With two penalties, he fell significantly behind and ended up in 24th place after 12.5 kilometers and a total of three errors.
Kühn runs after him
However, Johannes Kühn could not recommend himself for an Olympic nomination. The veteran, who alternates between the World Cup and the IBU Cup, neither had a good day at the shooting range (3 errors) nor on the cross-country ski trail and only came in 45th.
