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Despite a shooting error: Preuß fights for second place
Updated on January 19, 2025 – 3:45 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Franziska Preuß’s series of successes continues. At the home game in Ruhpolding, the World Cup leader took second place in the mass start despite some problems.
The Franziska Preuß Festival at the Biathlon World Cup in Ruhpolding continues. After a flawless performance in the relay victory on Saturday, the 30-year-old German also showed a top performance in the mass start on Sunday – and came second with one shooting error. The Swede Elvira Öberg won.
With a furious final lap, Preuß ran from fourth place to her eighth podium of the season. This meant she extended her lead in the overall World Cup to 142 points after twelve of 21 races over Frenchwoman Lou Jeanmonnot, who was ninth on Sunday.
Preuß, who was already second in the individual, got off to a perfect start in the World Cup leader’s jersey in front of her friend Simon Schempp with a flawless prone series, but had to let go with a penalty at the second stop.
With two flawless standing performances, the Bavarian moved back to the podium in front of 21,500 spectators – and passed the Italian Dorothea Wierer and the French Jeanne Richard in significantly plus temperatures.
Winner Öberg was unbeatable with flawless shooting and a 25 second lead and is now 178 points behind as third overall in the World Cup. In the discipline ranking in the mass start, she moved within one point of Preuß. Richard (0 penalties/+25.4 seconds) came third in the finish sprint behind Preuß. Selina Grotian (2/+1:01.1 minutes) managed a respectable twelfth place after a weak start.
After a three-day break, we head to Antholz for the World Cup dress rehearsal. The women start on Thursday with the 7.5 kilometer sprint, before the pursuit on Saturday and the relay on Sunday. A large part of the team will then complete the final preparation for the highlight of the year in South Tyrol, the World Championships in Lenzerheide will take place from February 12th to 23rd.