Franziska Preuß made it to the best three of the shortened singles on the Pokljuka on Thursday (13.03.2025). But much more important: she defends her yellow jersey and the lead overall has grown a little again because her sharpest competitor at the shooting range failed twice.
Prussia came to third place with a flawless shooting performance. However, she was 46.2 seconds behind the French winner Julia Simon, who also shot 100 percent and won a single for the first time in her long career. In between, Hanna Öberg from Sweden, who was seven seconds faster than Prussia despite 45 seconds.
Due to the difficult weather conditions, the organizers had decided in advance to organize only a shortened individual. Instead of 15 kilometers, the women only had to run 12.5 km. A mistake on the shooting range was punished with a penalty of the time with a minute of penalty. In the case of sometimes very gusty wind and deep snow, the race still demanded everything from the athletes.
60 points in four races
Because Prussia’s worst pursuer in the fight for the big crystal ball, Lou JeanMonnot, only seventh was seventh, the total leading 24 points made up and now has 60 points in the overall ranking for four outstanding individual races.
The second best athlete of the German Ski Association (DSV) was Selina Grotian, who missed the top 10 with three mistakes and a gap of 3: 11.9 minutes. With only two shooting errors, Johanna Puff was a rather weaker mileage 26.
Prussia keeps the nerves
Preuss had the advantage that she was able to orientate herself a little at the times of her strongest competitor in the fight for the overall rating. JeanMonnot had entered the race ten in front of the German and had to present them. Both completed the only standing shooting without errors, but the French woman was a little faster on the track. On the second shooting, Preuss was able to work out an advantage because JeanMonnot shot a mistake, but she landed five goals again. In the route, however, the 31-year-old from SC Haag could not go the pace of her opponent.
So she had to remain concentrated at the shooting range. In the penultimate shooting both remained again without flaws, the lead of Prussia was about 30 seconds. Then JeanMonnot came to the last shooting. It looked like a flawless series until the last shot, but then the display shone red. A little later Prussia was on. She kept her nerves and was on a podium course. On the last loop, Preuss fought himself over increasingly difficult distance and secured the space on the podium.
Grotian at the front at the front
Selina Grotian had become the first of the six German starters. In the first attack, she hit all the destinations and was there at the front. After an error, however, it fell back a bit because the competition shot properly despite the wind. Two more errors in the second lying attack finally let the hopes of a topp. At least the last shooting ended conciliator with five goals.
Sophia Schneider made two mistakes on both standing attacks and finally finished almost five minutes behind. Julia Tannheimer experienced a day to forget, she set seven of the 20 shots next to it.