Without the best athletes, the German Mixed relay in the Skilanglauf World Cup in the Swiss Engadine has clearly missed a top ratio.
After 4×5 km, it was only enough for the B-selection of the German Ski Association on the demanding course for ninth place among 19 teams.
Lucas Bögl, Katherine Sauerbrey, Jan Stölben and Anna-Maria Dietze, who was still the final runner, were 1: 38.4 minutes behind the victorious selection of Sweden, which was in front of Norway (+19.5 seconds) and the Switzerland (+33.0) enforced. The other leading nations had also largely spared their best runners.
The two team sprint Olympic champions were not in action for Germany on Friday. Katharina Hennig takes a training break with regard to the World Cup, the World Cup-wide Victoria Carl focuses on the individual races in Switzerland.
Friedrich Moch, the strongest German man, also only starts in singles. On Saturday there are freestyle sprints in the Engadine, on Sunday mass start races over 20 km in the open style.
It was the only relay race in the run-up to the World Championships in Trondheim (February 26 to March 9). No mixed relay is held at the World Cup, instead there is a men’s and a women’s race as usual.