The first individual race of the 2024 Biathlon World Championships in Nove Mesto left deep marks on Anamarija Lampic. The Slovenian was as fast as ever on the cross-country ski trail, but the happy nature experienced a real debacle at the shooting range.
If there hadn’t been any shooting in the World Championship sprint in Nove Mesto, Anamarija Lampic could now be happy about the silver medal. The former world-class cross-country skier is once again one of the fastest on the trail. Only the unstoppable Justine Braisaz-Bouchet was ahead of the Slovenian in the time table at the end.
While Braisaz-Bouchet’s good running time was ultimately the basis for the silver medal, Lampic only ended up in 36th place despite her fast legs. The reason was her catastrophic performance at the shooting range, where she allowed herself a whopping five penalty laps – together with Lena Häcki -Large recorded the worst result of all 93 starters.
France’s biathletes “just crazy”
The 28-year-old was accordingly satisfied after the race. “I don’t know what went wrong,” Lampic then struggled for words in the “Siol” interview: “It was the worst day of the season. I’m very disappointed because of the shooting yesterday [im Training] was very good. Even when shooting, everything was fine. And now I feel like I’m going to a funeral,” she expressed her extreme disappointment.
At the same time, Lampic was amazed at the sensational success of the French women, who not only took places one to four in the race, but also ended up in places one, three, four and five in the running time table – only the Slovenian prevented the quadruple success .
“I have no idea what the French women ate and what kind of skis they had today because it’s just crazy,” said the Slovenian, wondering about the French dominance, which very few people had expected to this extent.