Biathlete Denise Hermann-Wick can also celebrate after the second race at the home World Championships in Oberhof. The woman from Oberwiesenthal took silver in the pursuit on the Rennsteig. Victory went to France. The German women showed a strong team result with three athletes in the top 10.
Denise Herrmann-Wick also made it onto the podium in the 10-kilometer pursuit race at the Biathlon World Championships in Oberhof. The German finished second on Sunday (02/12/2023) after four penalties (27.0 seconds). Victory went to Julia Simon from France, who improved from tenth place to first place with just one penalty and crossed the finish line first after 32.00.8 minutes. Norway’s Marte Olsbu Röiseland won bronze (3 penalties after shooting errors/+ 37.7 seconds).
Schneider and Kebinger on five and eight
Sophia Schneider in fifth (+ 1:08.3 minutes) and Hanna Kebinger in eighth (+ 1:21.5 minutes) ensured a strong German team performance. After her seventh place in the sprint in fog and difficult conditions in the pursuit, Schneider had four penalties, but was still able to improve. After 17th place in the sprint with two shooting errors, Kebinger moved up nine places.
First Shooting: Lead melts
After her sprint victory on Friday (February 10, 2023), Herrmann-Wick was the first to take to the track, closely followed by silver medalist Hanna Öberg. The two strong runners set a high pace on the first 2-kilometer loop and came to the first shooting around 35 seconds ahead of the competition. Both stayed in front after the first prone stage, but the lead melted due to a shooting error each, the Swede Linn Persson and the French Julia Simon came from behind.
Second shooting: Herrmann-Wick shakes off Öberg
In fog and temperatures in the zero degrees Herrmann-Wick was able to break away again in the second shooting. Top competitor Oeberg had to go through twice, but the German shot clean. The closest pursuer was now Simon, who also cleared everything in the second prone stage and left the track in second place, 23.4 seconds behind Herrmann-Wick. Janina Hettich-Walz was also strong at this point, moving up from 23rd to ninth with two clean shootings.
Third shooting: Simon just ahead of Herrmann-Wick
In the first standing stage, Herrmann-Wick let the first target stand, adjusted briefly and then cleared everything. Her pursuer Simon hit everything again and took the lead, but Herrmann-Wick followed closely behind, just 1.5 seconds behind. Sophia Schneider also shot clean in the first standing stage, and after two penalties in prone she suddenly moved up to fourth with clean shooting. Surrounded in third and fifth place was Schneider by the strong Norwegians Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and Marte Olsbur Röiseland. At this point, Öberg already had five shooting errors, dropped back to 10th place and ended up 12th.
Fourth shooting: Simon breaks away
Herrmann-Wick overtook Simon after the third shooting and was the first to make the final stop, which had to bring the decision. Simon missed a shot, but Herrmann-Wick had two penalties. Herrmann-Wick was not able to make up the deficit of 28.3 seconds on Simon, but celebrated silver at the finish. The gap to the clean-shooting pursuer Olsbu-Röiseland was big enough to no longer pose a threat to Herrmann-Wick.