At this year’s World Championships in Nove Mesto, the biathletes are not only fighting against each other, but also against the conditions. Ski hunter Dorothea Wierer didn’t mince her words after the first week in the Czech Republic.
Like many other biathletes, Dorothea Wierer certainly wanted different conditions for the World Championships. These are “not wintry at all,” she made clear in an interview with “Eurosport” expert and ex-professional Michael Rösch: “It’s deep, slow, wet.”
The organizers in Nove Mesto have been working tirelessly since the start of the competition to provide good slopes despite the rainy weather. Among other things, the trails are prepared with salt or fertilizers, but this comes at the expense of speed. “It seems to me that you can’t really move. It sticks and you don’t have any real speed,” said Wierer.
In the pursuit, the conditions were still “okay”, but the next day in training it was “a catastrophe” on the track again. “That’s not very nice.” It’s also a difficult situation for the technicians, says Wierer: “Sometimes you just need luck.”
Biathlete Wierer makes a mistake: “It was my fault”
Meanwhile, the South Tyrolean was quite satisfied with her own performance. “My first week was actually relatively good. I was sick for a long time and had a lot of setbacks. So it wasn’t an easy season. But I think: a tenth place in the sprint with 0-0 is impressive, especially since we’re not that good in the sprint had material.”
She then made “too many mistakes” while pursuing her, “that was my fault.” Wierer didn’t judge the wind correctly, and with four missed shots she ended up in 21st place. The 33-year-old then came 14th when her teammate Lisa Vittozzi won the individual World Cup.
The relay world champion from Oberhof did not want to make any predictions for the further course of the competition. “I have to stay realistic. I have to be satisfied that I’m here at all,” said Dorothea Wierer. She takes a break from the single mixed relay, and the women’s relay is on the program on Saturday (1:45 p.m.).