Franziska Preuß delivers as hoped with second place at her home World Cup and sparks a party atmosphere. However, things are getting tighter in the overall World Cup.
After her gala performance, Franziska Preuß was still completely exhausted in the snow when the black, red and gold biathlon party started in the stands to the classic “Oh, how beautiful that is.” The overall World Cup leader delivered as hoped with second place at the home World Cup and really heated up the atmosphere in the Chiemgau Arena. In the finish area, the Ruhpolding resident could hardly help congratulating her, and her friend Simon Schempp also applauded euphorically.
After the difficult days in Oberhof, “a boulder fell down,” said Preuss with a broad grin: “You put the pressure on yourself and want to pick up where you were before Christmas.” That’s why it was “a very nice day, that’s what I wanted.” It was “a pleasure” to run in the yellow jersey in front of family and friends in the home stadium: “I would never have dreamed of that.”
After a penalty minute and the fourth-best running time, Lou Jeanmonnot, who won for the second time in a row, was 35.7 seconds behind the finish line – the fight for the overall World Cup is coming to a head at the halfway point of the season. Preuß’s advantage over the Frenchwoman, which was once almost 200 points, is now “only” 101 points. “I love being a hunter, I like this position,” said Jeanmonnot belligerently on “ARD”: “I’m after Franziska.”
But she still remains very cool: “I want to defend the yellow jersey for as long as possible,” emphasized Preuß: “Every race in yellow is great.” After the setbacks in Oberhof with places 28 and 20, she wanted to strike back on her own doorstep. “I can achieve the podium,” the Bavarian had emphasized beforehand. Of course, she wanted to “always be particularly good” at home – and she achieved that in an impressive manner.
In front of 10,900 spectators she took her seventh podium of the season and her third overall in Ruhpolding. A missed shot in the first standing stage in bright sunshine prevented the third victory this winter.
Biathlon: “Great day” in front of the home crowd
“It’s a great day that it works like this in front of a home crowd,” said former mass start world champion Schempp. “It was very important for us as a team that someone pushed forward,” said DSV sports director Felix Bitterling to “SID”.
The other DSV ski hunters, on the other hand, had little convergence. Stefanie Scherer (1 penalty minute/+3:31.0 minutes) achieved something countable for the first time on her return to the World Cup after five years, closely followed by 20-year-old Selina Grotian (3/+3:36.1) who also landed in the top 25 . Sophia Schneider (4/+5:21.2) and Vanessa Voigt (3/+6:11.3), who returned after illness, ended up outside the points. 19-year-old Julia Tannheimer was spared for a short time as a precautionary measure because of a mild bronchial infection.
Preuß is also aiming for a top result with the relay on Saturday (2:20 p.m.). Before Christmas she had once again achieved a German relay victory in Hochfilzen in a quartet with Voigt, Tannheimer and Grotian after a dry spell of 1,429 days. First up on Friday (2:20 p.m.) are the men around Philipp Nawrath, who are aiming for the first podium of the winter on their third attempt.
At the end of the German weeks there are the two mass starts on Sunday (12:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m./all ARD and Eurosport) before we go to the World Cup dress rehearsal in Antholz.