Biathlon in France
German double victory: DSV gala at the mass start
Updated 12/22/2024 – 3:40 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The weekend in France is a complete success for the German biathlon team. The crowning moment came in the women’s mass start.
Selina Grotian and Franziska Preuß celebrated a German double victory in the last race of the year. Grotian, only 20 years old, ran to her first World Cup triumph in the mass start in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand with one shooting error and prevailed over her teammate who was wearing the yellow jersey on a thrilling final lap. The last German double victory was on March 13, 2020 with Denise Herrmann ahead of Preuß in the Kontiolahti sprint.
Grotian had never finished higher than fifth place in the World Cup, and she came fourth once at the World Cup in Nove Mesto. Due to difficult track conditions and snowfall, Preuß missed her second victory in two days by 12.7 seconds, but made it onto the podium for the sixth time in a row. The Slovakian Paulina Batovska Fialková came third (3 penalties/+35.4 seconds).
On Saturday, Preuß celebrated her second victory of the season after the sprint in Hochfilzen; she was previously successful in the mass start in Ruhpolding in January 2019. In eight races this season, the top German biathlete has never been worse than fifth and has now come first, second and third twice. Her advantage over ninth-placed Swede Elvira Öberg in the overall World Cup is 194 points, and she also took the lead in the mass start World Cup.
After finishing third in the pursuit, Vanessa Voigt had to forego competing in the mass start for health reasons, as did youngster Julia Tannheimer. Preuss also complained about a sore throat during the sprint on Friday and then skipped the mandatory interviews. However, her health improved again over the weekend.
For the Bavarian, the biathlon year is not yet over; like Voigt, she is on the start list for the World Team Challenge in Schalke on December 28th. The new year starts with the home World Cups in Oberhof (January 9th to 12th) and Ruhpolding (January 15th to 19th), the highlight of the season is the World Championships in Lenzerheide (February 12th to 23rd).