German Philipp Horn missed the best result of his career

In France

German biathlete narrowly misses first podium of his career

In the men’s final sprint, Philipp Horn almost made it onto the podium for the first time in his career. Meanwhile, a young star won.

Biathlete Philipp Horn narrowly missed his first podium of his career at the World Cup in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand (France). The 30-year-old came fourth in the 10-kilometer sprint, 17.8 seconds short of the podium after a standing penalty. He had also celebrated his previous best World Cup result with a fourth place in the sprint in Lenzerheide in the previous season; this winter he had not gotten past position 17 before.

The best German in the previous weeks, Philipp Nawrath (1 penalty lap/+41.6 seconds), impressed again in the rain and plus temperatures and finished sixth in the top field. Justus Strelow (0/+1:14.8) did not make it into the top 15 after problems on the track, while the stronger runners Johannes Kühn (2/+1:25.1) and Danilo Riethmüller (4/+1:27, 6) gave away a top placement at the shooting range. Simon Kaiser (4/+1:40.4) paid his dues.

The faultless Norwegian Martin Uldal celebrated his first victory in only his fifth World Cup race. The 23-year-old was 28.6 seconds ahead of Horn, who broke the World Cup standard. Second in a heart-stopping final was dominator Johannes Thingnes Bö, who was 1.4 seconds short of his third win in a row after a penalty. The Swede Sebastian Samuelsson came third (1/+10.8). Nawrath took the only German podium of the season so far, coming third in the Kontiolahti sprint.

Nawrath and Horn are the only DSV ski hunters with a really good starting position going into the pursuit on Saturday (12.30 p.m.). The mass start is the last World Cup race of the year on Sunday (12.30 p.m. / ARD and Eurosport), while Nawrath and Strelow will go to the biathlon in Schalke on December 28th.