What scenes at the biathlon mixed relay on Sunday afternoon. The Belgian Thierry Langer provided the pictures of the day with a fall on his own rifle, a broken stick and a drama at the shooting range – and was relieved in the end.
Up to the fourth of a total of eight shooting bouts in the Pokljuka mixed relay everything went really well from a Belgian point of view. The underdog quartet was surprisingly strong in sixth place, just a few seconds behind the biathlon nations of Germany, Italy or France who were battling for the podium.
On a straight stretch, Thierry Langer suddenly lost control completely and crashed spectacularly into the Slovenian snow for no apparent reason.
“In a section that was actually very easy, I lost my balance. In my head, I was actually thinking that I’m very stable on the skis today. At that moment, a small hole hit me, I lost my balance and fall on my gun,” the 31-year-old reported about the fiasco himself on the “ZDF” microphone.
Langer: “After the fall I was just blue as lightning”
A few minutes later at the shooting range, it became clear how badly his shouldered weapon had been damaged in the fall. The Belgian fought desperately with his rifle, looking dangerously down the barrel of his own weapon several times. However, he later gave the all-clear: In this extremely dangerous situation, the gun was never loaded.
Langer then described the long seconds at the shooting range, which turned into minutes, in his own words: “First I lost a magazine. It took a while for the people at the shooting range to realize that I needed a second magazine. When I didn’t see anything after I put the magazine in. I took the magazine right out and tried my sight [Teil des Visiers, Anm. d. Red.] to free. I didn’t succeed, it was just full of ice.”
In the end, Belgium is still tenth
The dramatic scenes only came to an end when Thierry Langer was handed his spare gun, with which he then even fired all five shots into the bull’s eye: “At that moment I was almost back to normal stress”, he was able to say shortly after his race memorable situation smile.
“I’m glad that I at least did well in shooting today. I was blue as a flash on my skis after the fall,” Langer summarized his part of the Pokljuka relay race, which he probably won’t forget anytime soon.
As the second runner of the Belgian team, he handed over after the dramatic events in 21st place, almost three minutes behind. In the end, the Belgian quartet still finished in a respectable tenth place with the fewest shooting errors of all teams.