The German biathletes were only able to partially build on their strong performances at the home World Cup in Oberhof. The previous day’s winner Benedikt Doll in particular experienced a pursuit race to forget on Saturday (January 6th, 2024). In contrast, the Norwegians celebrated a five-fold victory.
Only Johannes Kühn from the German team was able to convince somewhat after his fifth place in the sprint and finished eighth in the top ten with two shooting errors. Doll, who had been victorious the day before, made a whopping five mistakes this time and finished twelfth, almost a minute and a half behind.
Philipp Horn (3 errors) and Roman Rees (2 errors) crossed the finish line directly behind them. Local hero Horn was particularly impressive in his running and improved by eleven places. Justus Strelow was 16th (1 error), Philipp Nawrath was 22nd with six errors.
Doll: “That was maximum stupidity”
“This doesn’t have much to do with bad luck. That was maximum stupidity“, Doll found clear words for his performance in the Sportschau interview: “My mistakes while lying down were all too far to the right. It was technically poorly done.”
The 33-year-old from the Black Forest had already experienced something similar at the World Cup in Lenzerheide, when he was also first on the track in the pursuit, only to shoot seven penalty laps. “That annoys me and wasn’t necessary“said Doll:”If I can take something good with me: I felt good as a runner and I also made no mistakes in the standing shooting.“
Premiere victory for Strömsheim
The Norwegians won among themselves. The shining winner after 12.5 kilometers was Endre Strömsheim, who took his first World Cup victory with two shooting errors in 33:04.2 minutes. Sturla Holm Laegreid also finished second with two penalties (+17.8 seconds). Johannes Dale-Skjevdal made a decent leap forward and came third (1 error/+36.4).
The overall World Cup leader Johannes Thingnes Bö missed the chance to win in the last shooting and finished the race in fifth place behind his brother Tarjei.
Horror start for Doll
After his victory the day before, Doll started the race as the leader, two seconds ahead of a Norwegian trio. But at the first shooting all hopes of the next victory were dashed. Doll bought three tickets and was over a minute behind early on. However, a large part of the field remained error-free. This also applies to Kühn, who came fifth to chase the Norwegians.
Thanks to the next error-free performance at the second prone position, Kühn maintained contact with the podium. Bö, meanwhile, took the lead and also hit the mark five times. Doll’s misery, however, continued with the next two missed shots. Things didn’t go much better for Horn, Nawrath and Rees, who all had to go into the penalty loop.
Kühn lacks consistency at the shooting range
Strömsheim showed how it can be done better: The 26-year-old, who is increasingly in the spotlight this World Cup season, scored five direct hits again and went back on the track a good 25 seconds ahead of Bö, who made a mistake once. His pursuers didn’t make any mistakes either, which opened the door for Kühn once again. Only he didn’t go through, one shot missed the target.
Doll, on the other hand, was able to rehabilitate himself somewhat and hit all five targets for the first time that day. He also succeeded in the last attack. Kühn, on the other hand, missed once again and lost his last chance on the podium. “It was good overall, but the others were just better“, said the 32-year-old after the race.
Bö messes up the last shot
In the fight for victory, Strömsheim got nervous during the last shooting and shot two tickets. The chance for Bö: He shot quickly, but far too imprecisely – three penalties. Laughing third was Laegreid, who made no mistakes and was able to make up a lot of time. He entered the final kilometers six seconds behind Strömsheim. But the grains weren’t enough. Strömsheim opened up the decisive gap and confidently won his first World Cup victory.