At the start of the biathlon season in Kontiolahti, Finland, Julia Tannheimer stunned the world elite. The 19-year-old DSV hopeful finished the sprint race in sixth place, followed by fifth place in the mass start, clearly fulfilling the internal World Cup standard. In an exclusive conversation with sport.de, the top talent explained, among other things, how she assesses her chances of competing in the world title fights in Lenzerheide (from February 12th).
Twice Top 15 or once Top 8: This is the internal World Cup standard that the German Biathlon Association sets for its athletes. A start at the World Cup is not guaranteed if the requirements are fulfilled, but proof of skills increases the chances enormously. This also applies to Julia Tannheimer, who has had the standard in her pocket since the season opened.
“I think it’s a good thing that I’m there and I would definitely be really happy,” says Tannheimer in an exclusive conversation sport.de their World Cup chance.
However, the ski hunter doesn’t want to lean too far out of the window just yet: “I think what matters now is the upcoming trimester. If four other people are regularly better than me and I don’t perform as well anymore, then that’s it “I think the World Cup should be reconsidered,” said Tannheimer. “If things continue like this, then I should be there in Lenzerheide.”
Until the season’s highlight in Switzerland, the World Cups in Oberhof (from January 9th), Ruhpolding (from January 15th) and Antholz (from January 23rd) are still on the program.
Biathlon talent Tannheimer aims for a high hit rate
For the World Cup double pack in Germany, Tannheimer has decided to “deliver good races again” and to achieve “at least 80 percent, preferably 90 percent” at the shooting range.
She also wants to try to stand up to some of the “absolute top athletes”.
The last training impressions give us hope: after the illness-related failure of her pursuer in Annecy, the priority was to “get healthy again”, but in the end she was “able to train well again” and actually “everything went well”.
In Oberhof, the first race for the women is on Friday (12:30 p.m.) with the sprint, on Saturday (12:30 p.m.) the pursuit will be completed, and on Sunday the single mixed (12:20 p.m ) and mixed relay (2:30 p.m.) conclude. sport.de reports from all races in the LIVE ticker.