Biathlete Franziska Preuß’s jubilee series has been torn-at the last shooting she gave away the World Cup medal. Gold went to the Frenchwoman Julia Simon – debutante Johanna Puff also made a name for herself.
In the sun-flooded biathlon Arena Lenzerheide, the Frenchwoman Julia Simon stormed over 15 kilometers to World Cup gold on Wednesday (February 18, 2025). Silver got Ella Halvarsson (0/+37.8 seconds) from Sweden. And Lou JeanMonnot (1/+39.2) also got her hot, longed -for first medal at these world championships with bronze.
Preuss criticizes supervisor
Franziska Preuß (+1: 53.3), on the other hand, could not continue her medal series after mixed relay bronze, sprint silver and persecution gold. After the first three rounds, Preuss was still on the medal course, but then two serious shooting errors at the second standing shooting.
The 30-year-old became tenth. “It was a shame, I was unfocused at the last shooting. I heard the stadium speaker, and that is usually not a good sign”said Preuss after the race on ZDF.
Franziska Preuss also criticized one of her trainers in the ZDF interview: “I don’t even know if I should say that now, but I think I have to talk to a supervisor in a nutshell. It wasn’t optimal what I could get about, although it was different” “said Preuss.
Puff with a magnificent World Cup debut
Johanna Puff (+3: 14.7), on the other hand, made a strong first World Cup appearance, who only moved to the team on Monday and was advanted by Sophia Schneider. She remained flawless at all stops at the shooting ranges and landed on the good 22nd place after a solid performance on the cross -country ski run. “I knew that I had to work well on the shooting range to have a good result”said Puff.
Used day for Selina Grotian
Julia Tannheimer, on the other hand, had difficulties at the shooting range right from the start. A mistake at the first recovery, at the last stop at the shooting range there were another three minutes of penalty. The 19-year-old could not make up for the big deficit despite the strong mileage on the trail. In the end, Tannheimer landed 33th.
It was a used day for Selina Grotian: with a total of five minutes of penalty and 5: 21.6 minutes behind the winner, she remained beyond the top 30.
On Wednesday, the German men want to make reparation in their singles over 20 km after a messed up first World Cup week. Johannes Kühn and Rücker David Zobel start for the first time in Lenzerheide, Philipp Horn and Danilo Riethmüller complete the DSV quartet.