After the German women performed rather disappointingly at the IBU Cup home game at the Großer Arber in the Bavarian Forest this morning, the men did better. The Norwegian athletes once again dominated the “second league” of biathlon, but one DSV starter ended up on the podium.
Simon Kaiser celebrated his second best result this winter with third place in the Arber sprint. So far, the 24-year-old has only been better in the Sjusjoen sprint, which he surprisingly won in mid-December 2023.
In Arber, thanks to error-free shooting, Kaiser landed on the podium 1:12.2 minutes behind the Norwegian series winner Johan-Olav Botn (0 errors). Second place went to Martin Uldal (1 error/+38.5 seconds) from Norway and fourth, fifth and sixth places were also secured by starters from Norway. Behind him was the second German, Lucas Fratzscher (2 errors/+1:53.1 minutes).
The DSV aces lacked too much on the Norwegians to achieve a better position, especially in terms of running. Only Danilo Riethmüller was able to keep up with the Norge sextet, who set the six fastest times.
Three German biathletes in the top 10
However, due to four shooting errors, Riethmüller’s seventh best mileage was only enough for 17th place (+2:31.7 minutes). Darius Lodl (2 errors/+2:37.3 minutes) came 19th, Linus Kesper (5 errors/+4:18.8 minutes) only reached 55th place. David Zobel had to miss the start at short notice.
In the overall ranking of the IBU Cup, Riethmüller (6th), Fratzscher (8th) and Kaiser (9th) are in the top 10, which otherwise only includes Norwegian biathletes.
The last stop after the upcoming Biathlon World Championships is Obertillach (February 29th to March 9th). Then there are two sprints, a pursuit, an individual and a mass start on the program.