There was nothing to gain for the German youth biathlon talents in the two mass start races of the home world championship on Friday.
Katharina Staller and Kilian Simon each did not get past eighth place in their mass start competitions at the Youth Biathletes World Championships on Arber.
At the finish, the 18-year-old Staller was clearly 1:42 minutes behind the winner from Austria, Selina Ganner, who left her mark on the World Championships with another medal. After placing seventh in the individual, she already won gold in the mixed relay and bronze in the sprint. In the mass start she was initially outside the podium with three shooting errors at half-time, but two error-free shots in the second part pushed her to the top.
The podium was completed by 17-year-old Adele Ouvrier Buffet from France (3 errors, +10.2 seconds) and 16-year-old Ilvy Giestheuer (4 errors, +17.9 seconds) from Austria. Katharina Staller’s teammate Ina Lickert had nothing to do with the top ranks in 33rd place after six errors (+3:50 minutes), Giovanna Nicolussi finished the race after the second shooting.
Lozbers is also putting his stamp on the World Cup
Shortly before, the Bulgarian Georgi Dzhorgov had secured victory in the mass start in the Bavarian Forest; he delivered the best result at the shooting range of all 60 athletes with just one mistake. It is his first top placement at this year’s World Championships – very different from second place Rihards Lozbers (7 errors, +10.8 seconds) from Latvia.
The 16-year-old secured the World Championship title in the individual and mixed relay in the junior division at Arber, and he came second in the sprint. The youngster now has a sensational four medals in four races. Third place went to Tuomas Latvalahti from Finland (3 errors, +16 seconds).
The DSV youngsters Hannes Lipfert (6 errors, +1:44 minutes) and Björn Hederich (7 errors, +2:07 minutes) had to rank further back in 17th and 19th respectively. For Hugo Winter (8 errors, +4:51 minutes) it was only enough for 47th place.
