Zhangjiakou (dpa) – Anja Wicker missed the first German medal in the first biathlon competition at the Paralympics in Beijing. In the absence of Andrea Eskau, who was absent for health reasons, the native of Stuttgart took fifth place in the sitting class in the 6 km sprint.
It was won by Oksana Masters, an American of Ukrainian descent, ahead of Yilin Shan, who won the first-ever biathlon medal for host China at the Paralympics.
“I’m not satisfied,” said Wicker: “I just couldn’t find my rhythm. The lightness was completely missing today.” She hopes that it was due to the strong wind, “you get off track a lot, that’s not for me”. The shooting errors cannot be explained with that: “I have to take responsibility for them.” At further starts, Wicker, whose lower spine is malformed, hopes for a medal: “I won’t let myself be unsettled that quickly. There will be new attacks in the next few days.”
At the 2014 games in Sochi she had won gold over 10 km and silver over 12.5 km, four years ago in Pyeongchang she went empty-handed.