Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof
DSV athletes miss the podium – Swede wins
January 8, 2026 – 3:34 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The World Cup in Oberhof did not start as hoped for the DSV women. There was no podium place for Franziska Preuß and Co.
Franziska Preuß narrowly missed out on the podium at the Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof, but confirmed her personal upward trend. Germany’s athlete of the year took fifth place (47.1 seconds behind) in the sprint on the Rennsteig, which was moved forward by one day, with one penalty (47.1 seconds behind), thus achieving her best result this winter. The faultless Elvira Öberg from Sweden secured the victory ahead of the Finnish Suvi Minkkinen (0 penalties/+21.1) and Julia Simon from France (0/+23.6).
Due to gusts of over 80 kilometers per hour predicted for Friday, the race was postponed. Preuß was doing well on the course, but a mistake in the standing shooting set her back. At the finish, the overall World Cup winner was just ahead of her teammate Janina Hettich-Walz (1/+49.5), who came sixth and thus cracked the important Olympic standard.
Julia Tannheimer (2/+1:19.8 minutes) narrowly missed the top 15 in 17th place. Vanessa Voigt was clearly behind despite her flawless shooting performance (0/+1:38.8), and Selina Grotian (2/+1:45.2) and Anna Weidel (1/+1:50.2) also played no role in the awarding of the top places.
Philipp Nawrath had previously ensured a perfect start from a German perspective with his second place in the men’s sprint. After one penalty, the 32-year-old was only 13.2 seconds behind the Italian Tommaso Giacomel, who celebrated an emotional victory and dedicated the victory to his late friend Sivert Guttorm Bakken.
Overall, the German men presented themselves strongly. Behind Nawrath, Philipp Horn (1/+38.7 seconds) came in seventh place, David Zobel (1/+59.9) came twelfth and thus secured half the Olympic standard. Lucas Fratzscher (2/+1:24.1 minutes) took 16th place.
On Saturday the men’s pursuit (12 p.m.) and the women’s relay (2:25 p.m.) will continue on the Rennsteig. The biathletes’ relay (11 a.m.) and the biathletes’ hunt race (2:30 p.m./all ARD and Eurosport) are planned for Sunday.