No relay medal for the German men at the World Championships in Oberhof. The DSV quartet came fifth in the wind lottery. Top favorite Norway should also be disappointed.
Johannes Thingnes Bö’s winning streak at the Biathlon World Championships in Oberhof has come to an end. In the 4×7.5-kilometre relay, Bömet finished second with the top favorite Norwegian team on Saturday (02/18/2023) (2 penalties/14 spares/+ 38.8 seconds). France secured the win with one penalty and nine spares in 1:19:55.7. Sweden took bronze (1/13/+1:39.9 minutes). The German team finished fifth (5 penalties/8 spare rounds/+3:
In the race, which was influenced by strong gusts of wind, the German squadron was close to the podium up to the fourth shooting stage. Johannes Kühn had three penalties in the standing stage in strong winds, the German relay fell back more than two minutes and was unable to catch up
Starting runner Strelow in front
The German starting runner Justus Strelow had handed over the relay in fourth place. After a clean first stage, Strelow was still in the lead, and the Saxon, who trained in Oberhof, was able to hold on to the lead even with one standing spare. At the first exchange, the German was 27.6 seconds behind the French leader Antonin Guigonnat.
“The final lap was extreme. The pace was already high on the second lap because the field had spread a bit. I was pretty busy there. At some point on the third lap the tank was empty.”said Strelow in the sports show. “The second shooting was relatively quick because of the wind. It was about shooting fast to take advantage of the wind gap. If there’s a gust, you’re quickly 30 seconds behind.”
Three penalties for Kühn
The field was then shaken up in the standing position by the second shooter – and Johannes Kühn was right in the middle. When the wind picked up, the runners had to reload in rows or even go into the penalty loop – a total of 25 penalty loops were shot here. The Norwegians were hit, Tarjei Bö had to go through once, the previously leading Swiss with Jeremy Finello got it, he had to go through four times. And Kühn could not accommodate three shots. From fourth place, the German fell back to tenth place, 2:10.0 minutes behind surprise leader Tomas Mikyska from the Czech Republic.
“I was just half a minute late at the shooting range”Kühn was annoyed after his appearance in the sports show. “Those in front of me had good conditions and then for about 40 seconds nobody hit the shooting range. That was a bit unfortunate. I tried to wait. But the longer you stand, the more difficult it becomes.”
The Czech Mikyska remained in front at the second exchange, just ahead of the Frenchman Fabien Claude (+ 1.4 seconds) and clearly ahead of the Swede Martin Ponsiluoma (+ 56.6 seconds)
Rees with a flawless effort
The third German runner Roman Rees then made a strong race in the gusts of wind from Oberhof. The German hit all the targets without a spare and brought the team of national coach Mark Kirchner up to fifth place. By the third substitution, Rees was 1:48.1 behind the surprise Czech team, who were still in the lead, and just under a minute behind third-placed Norway.
Having both France’s Emilien Jaquelin and top shooter Sturla Holm Laegreid on the penalty loop underscores Rees’ strong shooting.
Doll claims fifth place despite two penalties
Benedikt Doll had a good prone position, but had two penalties in standing. In prone, the Black Forester came through with just one penalty and claimed fifth place. At the very front, Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet was able to pull away from the competition by 52 seconds in prone, while the Czech relay fell out of the medal ranks after two penalties from Jonas Marecek. Johannes Thingnes Bö from Norway and Sebastian Samuelsson from Sweden fought for the other medals.
In standing, Fillon Maillet secured gold for the French with a clean shooting. Bö also got through without a mistake, but was already too far behind. Doll had two penalties, but was able to maintain fifth place