Kontiolahti (dpa) – The joint photo of Denise Herrmann and Stina Nilsson had to be easy after this special race.
While the German individual Olympic champion Herrmann secured her second win of the season in the sprint in Finland, the Swede Nilsson made it onto the podium for the first time as a biathlete. Four years ago, the 28-year-old won Olympic gold in the cross-country sprint, now she surprisingly came third. Herrmann also switched from cross-country skiing to biathlon in 2016 and started a successful second career. Both know each other well from the specialists.
“It was really cool, an ex-cross-country duel,” said 33-year-old Herrmann on ZDF. Both made one shooting error each, at the finish after 7.5 kilometers they were separated by only 5.2 seconds. Nilsson, who started late, made sure that Herrmann had to tremble for the eighth World Cup success of her career for a long time. But in the end it was enough – and the Norwegian Tiril Eckhoff landed in between, just 0.2 seconds ahead of Nilsson. “I’m very surprised, almost shocked,” said Nilsson, who hadn’t finished in the top ten before and was only a substitute runner at the Olympics.
Strong form
Herrmann, on the other hand, showed just under a month after her Olympic victory in Beijing that she is still in great shape. In China she had triumphed over 15 kilometers and celebrated the greatest success of her career. Now it worked over half the distance. Two years ago she had already won the World Cup in the sprint in North Karelia. “Actually, I don’t really like the tracks here, but I often have good races here,” said Herrmann.
Herrmann was able to convince with the third best time, Nilsson was the fastest 6.9 seconds better and thus laid the foundation for the leap onto the podium. But Herrmann was also able to make up for her penalty loop after standing. “It was just great to run and it also worked well in shooting,” said Herrmann, who cited a good recovery phase after the Olympics at home as the key to her success: “You have to stay relaxed, I’m pretty good at this mode at the moment. Hopefully it stays that way until the end of the season.”
Vanessa Voigt also showed a strong performance without shooting errors and finished sixth. The flawless Vanessa Hinz, in twelfth place, also got a very good starting position for the pursuit race on Sunday (12.45 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport), in which Herrmann is now the favorite. “I have to try to make my race,” said the former world champion, who would also like to follow the strong Nilsson in the slipstream. “It would be like in the old days,” said Herrmann, who herself won Olympic bronze in the relay in Sochi in 2014 as a cross-country skier.