The German men’s relay secured its second podium finish of the winter in the second race at the Biathlon World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria.
Despite one penalty loop and five spare rounds, the quartet of Justus Strelow, Johannes Kühn, Roman Rees and Benedikt Doll finished third. The gap to winner Norway with superstar Johannes Thingnes Bö was 28.6 seconds. Second place went to Sweden after 4 x 7.5 kilometers. At the start of the season, the DSV relay had already taken second place in Finland last week.
Start runner Strelow had some problems on the snowy track and was only able to hand over in ninth place. A perfect performance at the shooting range was of little use to the Saxon, on his final lap alone he lost more than 20 seconds to the leading Norwegians.
After that, Kühn made a promising start and got close to the leading group, but his standing didn’t work well and he even had one penalty loop. “It wasn’t the first and last penalty loop. That happens,” said Kühn.
Rees took over as the snow continued to pile up in seventh, 45.1 seconds back from leaders Italy. While Bö quickly secured the lead one day after his sprint victory, Germany moved up in fourth place. Rees acted flawlessly before Doll was allowed to start. After his first shooting, the Black Forester moved up to third place and confidently held this position to the finish.