Franziska Preuß made it onto the podium for the first time in the new year at the home World Cup in Ruhpolding.
Thanks to a strong running performance and despite a penalty minute, the 30-year-old came in second in the 15-kilometer individual race, 35.7 seconds behind the Frenchwoman Lou Jeanmonnot, who won for the second time in a row.
This meant that Franziska Preuß’ lead in the overall World Cup over her closest competitor shrank to 101 points.
Preuß, who was outstanding before Christmas, made an impressive comeback after finishing 28th and 20th in Oberhof, winning her seventh podium of the season and her third overall in Ruhpolding in front of 10,900 spectators wearing the yellow jersey.
A missed shot in the first standing stage prevented the third victory this winter. The Swiss Amy Baserga (0 shooting errors/+43.1 seconds) placed third on the podium for the first time in her career.
Little went according to plan for the other DSV ski hunters. Stefanie Scherer (1/+3:31.0 minutes) scored points for the first time on her return to the World Cup in five years, closely followed by 20-year-old Selina Grotian (3/+3:36.1) who also landed in the top 25.
Sophia Schneider (4/+5:21.2) and Vanessa Voigt (3/+6:11.3), who returned after illness, ended up outside the points. 19-year-old Julia Tannheimer was spared for a short time as a precautionary measure because of a mild bronchial infection.
Biathlon: German weeks continue into the weekend
The home World Cup continues on Friday (2:20 p.m.) with the men’s relay, the quartet around Philipp Nawrath is aiming for their first podium place of the season in their third attempt.
A day later it is the turn of the women’s relay team with Preuß, which was last victorious in Hochfilzen (2:20 p.m.), before the two mass starts (12:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m./all ARD and Eurosport) take place at the end of the German weeks on Sunday . We then go to the World Cup dress rehearsal in Antholz.