No chance in Östersund
German biathletes disappoint in the pursuit
December 7, 2025 – 4:08 p.mReading time: 1 min.
No chance in the pursuit: The German biathletes cannot keep up in Östersund. The Norwegian dominance will still be broken.
The German biathletes were clearly behind the world leaders in the pursuit of Östersund. After finishing twelfth in the sprint, Philipp Nawrath slipped to 13th place, and despite only making one mistake over the 12.5 kilometers, he had no chance at all in the race for the podium. The ski hunters from the German Ski Association (DSV) are still unable to keep up with the best, especially on the cross-country ski trails; ultimately they were 1:10.9 minutes behind winner Quentin Fillon Maillet.
The Frenchman, who started third, was the first to break the Norwegian dominance this season with two penalties after their two double victories at the start. The Swedish local hero Sebastian Samuelsson came second (2 penalties/+6.7 seconds), while individual and sprint winner Johan-Olav Botn came third this time.
Apart from Nawrath, the German biathletes lost a lot of time this time in addition to running and at the shooting range. Philipp Horn (4/+2:09.5) fell four places to 20th place, Justus Strelow (4/+2:21.4) lost ten positions to 23rd. Danilo Riethmüller (3/+2:53.8) also fell back to 31st place, only Simon Kaiser (3/+3:19.5) made up a few places in 36th place.
After a few weeks in Scandinavia, the German team is now heading back home for a few days. On Friday (from 11.25 a.m. in the live ticker on t-online) the sprint continues in Hochfilzen, Austria. The pursuit is on the program on Saturday (12 p.m.), before the relay competition follows on Sunday (12 p.m./all ARD and Eurosport).