The Biathlon World Cup will be in Hochfilzen from Friday. There are two personnel changes in the German team compared to the start of the season in Kontiolahti.
Marlene Fichtner replaces Johanna Puff in the women’s team. The latter has been ailing in recent days and now has to give way for the time being.
Fichtner recently drew attention to himself with strong performances in the second-class IBU Cup. The 21-year-old won the pursuit in Geilo, Norway. Fichtner had previously celebrated a podium finish in second place in the sprint.
For men, Simon Kaiser is moving up from the IBU Cup to the World Cup. The 25-year-old replaces David Zobel. At the start of the season in Kontiolahti, he was disappointed with a 60th place in the individual and a 62nd place in the sprint and then explained on Instagram: “Biathlon can also suck. Two weeks ago I was still in a positive mood and wanted to finish after the successful qualification Attack the World Cup fully. Two shitty individual races later, that’s it again with the World Cup and I have to sort myself out again.”
German biathlon team wants to confirm upswing
The German team was recently rewarded with two podium places at the start in Kontiolahti. Philipp Nawrath came third in the sprint. Franziska Preuß also landed in third position in the final mass start. The German single mixed relay team around Vanessa Voigt and Justus Strelow also reached third place on the opening weekend.
DSV sports director Felix Bitterling explained before the second World Cup stop of the current biathlon season: “We want to take the recent positive trend from Kontiolahti and perform better across all teams, especially at the shooting range. This is the absolute basis for being able to compete among the world’s best. In the sprints we would like to extend the recent good results of some to a larger group. Similar to the mass starts in Kontiolahti, we also want a good, competitive role among the pursuers Last season, this form of competition wasn’t necessarily one of our strengths.”
The German team is targeting podium places for the relays, Bitterling revealed in a press release.
The German biathlon line-up for Hochfilzen:
Women: Marlene Fichtner, Selina Grotian, Julia Kink, Franziska Preuß, Julia Tannheimer, Vanessa Voigt
Men: Philipp Horn, Simon Kaiser, Johannes Kühn, Philipp Nawrath, Danilo Riethmüller, Justus Strelow