So far things haven’t gone well for the German athletes at the Biathlon World Cup. But with an extremely strong performance, Janina Hettich-Walz secured silver in the individual.
Janina Hettich-Walz has secured Germany’s first medal at the Biathlon World Championships. The 27-year-old showed a flawless performance in all four stages in the individual over 15 kilometers and was also lightning fast on the cross-country ski trail.
After the last shooting, even gold seemed within reach. In the end, the German had to admit defeat to the outstanding Italian Lisa Vittozzi and took silver. Bronze went to Julia Simon from France. For Hettich-Walz it is the greatest success of her career. With her jump onto the podium, she averted a historic zero for the German team at the start of the second half of the World Cup.
Strong German team performance
World Cup debutante Selina Grotian and Vanessa Voigt also made no mistakes and rounded off the German team’s very good result. Grotian came fourth, Voigt followed right behind in fifth. Franziska Preuß was unable to match the level of the rest of the team with two errors.
After the dry spell ends, the men can improve on Wednesday in their individual over 20 km (5:20 p.m./in the live ticker on t-online). Benedikt Doll, Philipp Horn, Johannes Kühn and Roman Rees start there for the DSV team.