The German biathletes are going into the individual World Championships in Oberhof with a change in personnel.
As the German Ski Association announced, Philipp Nawrath, who had not yet been taken into account, replaced his teammate Justus Strelow on Tuesday (2:30 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport), who had impressed in sprint and pursuit in twelfth and eleventh place.
“Everyone saw that Justus did two great races,” said DSV sports director Felix Bitterling: “But we still have one or two plans for him.” In view of the many competitions, you have to “act cleverly”. As a result, the decision had matured “that a break would do him good”. The pursuit race on Sunday showed that there were “certain signs of fatigue”.
Nawrath secured the last German ticket for the home title fights at the end of January with good results at the European Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, despite the lack of a standard.
Biathlon World Cup: These German ski hunters go into the race
In addition to the 30-year-old, Roman Rees, Benedikt Doll, Johannes Kühn and David Zobel will start over the 20 km.
After his disappointment in the sprint (55th) and the improvement of 40 places in the chase, Doll is pushing for a top result. “The trick is to hit the perfect tempo in the individual, not to be too fast and not too slow,” he said. But he wanted to take an “offensive” approach to the race.
The top favorite is once again the Norwegian high-flyer Johannes Thingnes Bö, who has won the last six races in a row in the World Cup and has also cleared everything at the World Championships with three gold medals in three competitions. Kühn achieved the best German individual result with sixth place in the chase race.