For the German biathletes, the mixed relay was on the second day of competition in Oberhof, Germany. It was the first of the season. But in the end it wasn’t quite enough to jump onto the podium.
Vanessa Hinz, Vanessa Voigt, Benedikt Doll and Roman Rees competed in the mixed relay for the German team at the Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof. In the first of these competitions of the season, the quartet did not quite succeed. In the end, the team finished sixth after an intense final fight. The victory went to Norway. Second place went to Belarus, third place went to France.
Biathlon trainer Mark Kirchner said earlier on ARD: “It will be a tough fight. We will have to do hard.” That was confirmed.
That’s how the mixed season went
Roman Rees was the first to take to the track for the German team. After the first split, he finished eighth, with Norway in the lead thanks to Tarjei Bö. In the first prone shooting, Rees had to reload once and was back on the trail in eighth place, 14 seconds behind. At the time, Norway was in the lead, followed by Belarus and Switzerland.
While Norway and Sweden failed in standing, Roman Rees made a flawless appearance. He was able to fight his way up to fifth place. After that he made up some time, handing over to Benedikt Doll in third place (+16.4) behind Norway and Russia (+0.4).
Rees afterwards on ARD: “I’m satisfied. I got away really well standing and fought my way to the finish.”
Doll: “With three spare rounds it’s two too many”
Doll came in third in the prone shooting. He lost important time with a reload. He left the shooting range in fourth (+26.5) behind Norway, Russia and Belarus.
Even while standing, the DSV biathlete did not make a flawless appearance in the shooting. He had to reload twice and was still fourth (+43.3), well behind the leading Norwegians. But: Doll made up for his mistakes on the track, fought his way in front of and past the Russian Alexander Povarnitsyn. Vanessa Voigt was able to start third (+48.8) behind Norway and Belarus.
Doll on ARD: “With three spare rounds it’s two too many, you have to say that. I didn’t have the patience, I have to improve that.”
Voigt took to the track as third
Voigt had to accept a mistake right from the start when shooting while lying down. However, she did better in the standing position, got through without any mistakes and was back on track in fourth behind Norway, Belarus and Italy (+1: 32.2). In this position she also handed over to Vanessa Hinz. Voigt said happily on ARD: “I am very satisfied with my race. You could see that I have deficits on the track, but that was clear to me even before the relay.”
Hinz came in sixth in the first shooting, but made no mistakes compared to the competition from Russia, Italy and France. Thus, the German left the shooting range as third behind Norway and Belarus (+1: 53.8).
In the last shooting, Hinz took fourth place after Norway, Belarus and France. However, with a strong deficit. In the end, it was sixth place for the German team.
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