Only a podium finish in winter, many shooting errors and not in top form as a runner – the German biathlon men are lagging behind. What’s up? Sports director Bitterling challenges his team.
Luckily for the German biathlon team, there is a women’s team. Franziska Preuß, Vanessa Voigt and Co. are currently rushing from success to success. Preuß is the World Cup leader, German athletes have already been on the podium four times in the still young season, four Germans have already finished in the top 5. And the men? “We have a completely different situation than in the women’s field” Biathlon sports director Felix Bitterling also stated after the German men’s disappointing fifth place in the Hochfilzen relay on Sunday (December 15, 2024).
Nawrath at least finished third in the sprint
While the women are rushing from success to success, the DSV men are a long way from the successes of the previous year, when Philipp Nawrath even made it into the yellow jersey. After five individual races this winter and four relay decisions, Nawrath took third place in the sprint and Justus Strelow took third place in the single mixed – both in Kontiolahti. Youngster Danilo Riethmüller also made it into the top 5 at the Kontiolathi mass start.
What’s going on with the German biathlon men in the first year after the resignation of success guarantor Benedikt Doll? “We have a different situation than in the women’s field”observes Bitterling, who explains the situation like this: “We know that there are two nations that are difficult to beat on a normal day, those are the Norwegians and the French.” In the relay on Sunday, France and Norway fought it out for victory. There are two Norwegians and two Frenchmen in the top four in the World Cup and so far all five individual races have been won by Norwegians or French.
37 shooting errors – Bitterling: “We have to shake ourselves”
Biathlon – that’s running and shooting. And these are currently the two problem areas for German men. “We have to shake ourselves up”Bitterling demands of his team. Because: “We give away too much at the shooting range in the men’s competitions.” In the Hochfilzen relay alone, his team had 13 spare rounds and one penalty. In addition, there were 24 shooting errors in the two individual races. Only Nawrath got through once without shooting errors – and finished eighth in the sprint without making any mistakes.
Too slow at the shooting range
Shooting errors lead to loss of time – due to reloading or penalty laps. In the relay alone, the Germans lost 51.1 seconds at the shooting range to Norway (which also had to reload eight times and go into the penalty loop once). The Germans also lose a lot of time at the shooting range in the individual races. Only Justus Strelow is among the world’s best. No other German made it into the top 10 in the world in a race this season in the so-called “range time”, i.e. the time at the shooting range.
Felix Bitterling: “Giving too much away”
“Overall, we give too much away at the shooting range. In this narrow world class, things simply have to get better. Otherwise we will have an extremely difficult time getting up there.”Bitterling calls for an improvement at the last World Cup weekend of this year in Le Grand Bornand, France.
Too slow on the track
But the Germans also have to improve their running. In the Hochfilzen relay, the German quartet was 1:22.3 minutes slower on the route than the victorious French. Even in Nawrath’s biggest success of the winter so far, 3rd place in Kontiolahti, the 31-year-old was 25 seconds slower than the fastest runner on the cross-country ski trail. In the previous individual races, Danilo Riethmüller once again made it to the top of the world with the tenth best running time at the mass start in Kontiolahti. Otherwise the Germans regularly miss the top 10 strongest runners.
Bitterling: “Top form in January and February”
At least here an improvement can be expected. Because, reports Felix Bitterling, the build-up of form for the season has not yet been completed. “In terms of running, we have simply planned a different structure this year than last. We want to be in top form, especially in January and February.”explains the DSV biathlon sports director.
And that in turn gives the German fans hope. Maybe the DSV men will make it back to the podium at the home World Cups in Oberhof and Ruhpolding at the beginning of January.