Biathlon in Hochfilzen
Preuß furious: German women’s relay team triumphs
Updated 12/15/2024 – 1:09 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The success of the German biathletes continues. After a double podium in the pursuit, they even celebrated victory in the relay.
The German biathlon women are continuing their success in Hochfilzen. After Vanessa Voigt and Franziska Preuß took second and third place in the pursuit on Saturday, the relay team even secured victory on Sunday – the first for a German women’s relay team in four years, or more precisely: in 1,429 days.
The relay team consisting of Voigt, Julia Tannheimer, Selina Grotian and final runner Preuß prevailed against France in a race that was exciting right up to the last shooting. The first three runners only had to reload four times. Nevertheless, they could not shake off France. But then Preuß came along and made the difference with two error-free shots. In the end, she crossed the finish line 1:05.7 minutes ahead of France’s Lou Jeanmonnot.
“All three girls in front of me did a great job, so of course I didn’t want to mess it up,” said Preuß frankly on the ZDF microphone after the race.
Starting runner Voigt took a spare while standing and handed over in fourth place with the first chasing group. Tannheimer, who is only 19 years old, delivered an outstanding race with just one prone miss and, thanks to her extremely strong running time, caught up with the leading French women. “It was one of my best races so far,” said Tannheimer on ZDF. Grotian created a small hole with two spares, but the flawless overall World Cup leader Preuß impressively turned the duel around.
The French final runner Jeanmonnot had shown nerves in the last shooting and had three spare rounds and one penalty, which meant that Preuss was uncatchable. Sweden came third. In the disappointing seventh place in Kontiolahti at the start of the World Cup, Preuss was missing from the young German quartet.
The women continue on Friday (from 2:20 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online) with the sprint at the last World Cup of the year, Preuß will then start again in the yellow jersey. In Annecy-Le Grand Bornand, the pursuit and a mass start are also on the program until Sunday.