In terms of skiing, Denise Herrmann-Wick was also top in the biathlon pursuit of Pokljuka. But two misses were too many for the podium.
Denise Herrmann-Wick missed the podium in the Pokljuka biathlon pursuit. When the Swede Elvira Öberg won on Saturday (January 7th, 2023), the Saxon finished seventh. Two penalties after shooting errors were too much despite another strong run time. At the finish, the German was 15 seconds off the podium.
Start-finish victory for Öberg
Öberg celebrated a lights-to-flag victory in Slovenia. After four shooting bouts without a penalty loop, the 23-year-old crossed the finish line jubilantly in 29:41.6 minutes. It was already the seventh World Cup victory of her career for the strong relay Olympic champion.
In the duel for second and third place, Italy’s Dorothea Wierer (+ 17.6 seconds) with one shooting error won against World Cup leader Julia Simon from France (+ 22.4 seconds), who also had one penalty loop. In the sprint on Thursday (January 5th, 2023), Simon finished second ahead of Wierer.
Norwegian Roeiseland with a strong race
Marte Olsbu Roeiseland also had a strong race. The three-time Olympic champion, who returned to the World Cup after a corona infection, finished 16th in the sprint on Thursday (January 5th, 2023) with a shooting error in the pursuit and finished eighth. This made the 32-year-old the best athlete in the pursuit.
Voigt and Hettich-Walz 26th and 33rd
Vanessa Voigt and Janina Hettich-Walz had nothing to do with the podium with two and three shooting errors. After 23rd place in the sprint and one penalty each, Voigt fell back to 26th place (+ 2:48.2 minutes). Hettich-Walz started the race from 45th place. In the meantime, the 26-year-old was able to work her way up to 28th place after the third shooting. However, due to two mistakes in the final standing stage, Hettich-Walz fell back to 33rd place (+3:22.5 minutes).
“Health is not optimal” – Weidel does not start
From the German quartet qualified for the pursuit, Anna Weidel was not at the start. The 26th of the sprint on Thursday (01/05/2023) gave up for health reasons. “Anna Weidel had been ill over the Christmas period. In the sprint it became apparent that her condition and state of health is not yet optimal, so that we decided together to refrain from competing for the time being”team doctor Katharina Blume is quoted in a report by the German Ski Association (DSV).
Before Weidel, Franziska Preuss and Vanessa Hinz had already decided not to start in Pokljuka due to illness.