The German biathlon youngsters missed a medal on the last day of the Junior European Championship in Altenberg. A day after the rushing medal festival in the two sprint races, the DSV team went away empty-handed in the mass starts. Two runners of the team were on the podium until shortly before the end.
The German biathlon juniors missed a medal in a dramatic way on the final day of the European Championship in Altenberg.
With Lea Zimmermann and Lena Siegmund, the DSV had two hot iron in the fire until the fourth shooting. Siegmund was just under four seconds in third place after the third attack, around twelve seconds.
The gap to the top was slightly larger on the penultimate round, but with a flawless last stop, precious metal for the DSV duo would have been in there. Ultimately, the DSV duo in the last shooting of the European Championship made a total of six mistakes (three each) and fell back to places 15 (Zimmermann) and 17 (Siegmund) until the finish.
The best German in the final bill made Lotta de Buhr, who shot an error in each stop and landed in seventh place. Charlotte Gallbronner and Alma Siegismund came across the line in places 21 and 40.
The Czech Katerina Pavlu, who put the Italian duo Fabiana Carpella and Sara Scattolo in second and then, was the new European champion in the mass start.
Biathlon juniors without chance of medals
The DSV team was clearly distanced in the mass start of the juniors. In the victory of the now triple Polish European champion Grzegroz Galica, Linus Kesper (four mistakes) was the best -placed runner from the German team as twelfth.
Sprint European champion Fabian Kaskel had to be satisfied with 24th place after four penalty rounds, Elias Seidl shot out early with four mistakes in the first attack and finished 27th.
In the eight races of the European Championship, the DSV team won two gold, silver and bronze medal.