Two penalties were too much for Selina Grotian and Justus Strelow. In the single mixed relay in Oslo I only managed sixth place. The victory went to Norway.
Selina Grotian and Justus Strelow missed the podium in sixth place in the single mixed relay at the Biathlon World Cup in Oslo. After eight shoots and 13.5 kilometers on the course, two penalties and eight spare rounds were too many for the German duo.
The victory went to the Norwegians Juni Arnekleiv and Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen, who also started Anna Magnusson and Sebastian Samuelsson in an exciting finish. Finland took third place.
Grotian starts at Premiere with two reloaders
Selina Grotian got off to a solid start in her World Cup single mixed premiere. The 19-year-old, who was spared in the mass start on Saturday (March 2nd, 2024), had to reload twice while lying down. After a flawless standing stage, she handed over to Justus Strelow in sixth place after 3.0 kilometers, just 9.0 seconds behind the leader.
Strelow runs up to second place
Strelow, who together with Vanessa Voigt secured Germany’s first World Cup victory in the single mixed relay at the end of January, immediately continued his strong mass start performance on Saturday and remained faultless in the prone position. So the Saxon was the first to get to standing shooting. Here he had to reload once. In second place and only 7.1 seconds behind leader Norway with Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen, he sent Grotian on her second outing.
At this point, co-favorites France were already falling far behind. Emilien Jaquelin had one penalty and handed over to teammate Lou Jeanmonnot in tenth place, almost a minute behind the lead.
Grotian has to go into the penalty loop twice
Shortly afterwards, Germany’s chances of reaching the podium were lost: Grotian missed three targets while lying down and was only able to score once during his hectic reloading. With two penalties of 75 meters each, she returned to the track in tenth place. The gap to leader Jui Arnekleiv was already 1:02 minutes. Grotian did better standing than lying down – she moved up to sixth place with one spare. On Strelow, she was 56.8 seconds behind leaders Finland, while the Germans were still around 45 seconds away from third place.
Competition and Strelow shoot strong to the final
Strelow had to hope for mistakes from the competition and shoot cleanly himself. Norway, Finland and Sweden initially did not oblige him. With a spare, Strelow improved by one place, but the podium remained around a minute away. Strelow even made no mistakes in the final shooting. But the top team didn’t allow themselves any mistakes either.