On Saturday, Swedish biathlete Annie Lind reached the IBU Cup podium for the first time when she secured second place in the Lake Placid sprint. The next coup was supposed to follow on Sunday, but Lind experienced a crazy debacle.
When Norwegian Gro Randby won the sprint, Lind fell 25 places to 27th place. The deciding factor was a whopping eleven shooting errors. The 23-year-old still hit four targets on the first attempt, but there were four penalties on the second shooting, and another three on the third and fourth.
The race went even worse for another Swede: Johanna Nordqvist, who came eighth in the sprint. However, the 25-year-old clearly lost this position by only hitting seven of 20 goals.
In Sweden, people will still be satisfied with the result of the hunting race. With Sara Andersson and Johanna Skottheim, two Swedes landed on the podium behind Randby.
German biathlon talent narrowly misses the podium
From a German perspective, Julia Kink didn’t even miss this by eight seconds. The 22-year-old had five penalties, but still worked her way up from seventh to fourth place.
Lena Hanses (4 errors/+2:26.9 minutes) came seventh, Hanna Kebinger (4 errors/+3:36.1 minutes) finished her pursuer in twelfth place. Mareike Braun (4 errors/+1:08.4 minutes) was 18th, Marina Sauter (3 errors/+4:30.8 minutes) 23rd.
Thanks to her fourth place, Kink also improved three places in the discipline ranking of her pursuers to ninth place. The DSV talent also has the same placement in the overall IBU Cup rankings. However, the gap to the previously dominant French women is huge. Kink has collected 502 points, the leader Paula Botet 1022, Sophie Chauveau in second place 875 and Vlodiya Galmace-Paulin 861.
