Biathlon World Cup in Ruhpolding
Zobel gets his Olympic ticket: Samuelsson with a perfect race
01/17/2026 – 4:08 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
It’s not enough to get to the top, but the German biathlete still fulfills an important goal for the season.
The German biathletes clearly missed out on another podium place at the home World Cup in Ruhpolding. After third place in the relay, David Zobel was the best of the DSV sextet in ninth place in the sprint. After perfect shooting and ten kilometers, he was ultimately 13.5 seconds short of the podium. After finishing twelfth in the Oberhof sprint, the 29-year-old became the fourth German to meet the standard for the Olympic Games.
“I tried not to think about it too much,” said Zobel: “Of course it’s the topic and the Olympics is the dream for this year. But I stuck to the sub-disciplines.” The outstanding Swede Sebastian Samuelsson won confidently with a perfect race in 21:53.8 minutes ahead of the overall World Cup leader Tommaso Giacomel (1 penalty lap/+17.6 seconds) from Italy. The Norwegian Isak Frey came third (0/+34.1).
Zobel ultimately remained 47.6 seconds behind the winner. Philipp Nawrath (1/+55.4), who finished on the podium the previous week, came in eleventh. While Lucas Fratzscher (2/+1:28.8 minutes) can still hope to catch up in the pursuit, Danilo Riethmüller (4/+2:07.5) and Johannes Kühn (3/+2:09.2) are far too far behind to meet the partial standards. Justus Strelow also didn’t score points (2/+1:53.2).
For the majority of the Olympic starters, the hunting race on Sunday (3 p.m., live in the ticker on t-online) is already the dress rehearsal for the Winter Games; they travel to a high-altitude training camp before the games.
Franziska Preuß, on the other hand, will also compete in the competitions in Nove Mesto (January 22nd to 25th). Before that, she is aiming for her first podium of the season at the home World Cup in the pursuit on Sunday (12.30 p.m., live in the ticker on t-online). The starting position is good after fifth place in the sprint.
