Biathlon in Hochfilzen
Shooting errors are fatal for the German squadron
Updated 12/14/2025 – 1:24 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
In the meantime it looked like a success for the German relay team in Hochfilzen, but in the end it wasn’t enough because there were too many mistakes.
They wanted to do the same as the ladies – but that didn’t work. On Saturday, the German women’s relay team landed on the podium in Hochfilzen. The quartet around David Zobel, Philipp Nawrath, Philipp Horn and Justus Strelow also had this goal on Sunday. The men were incredibly strong in their running, but their performances at the shooting range put the podium out of reach.
The victory went to Norway. France took second place ahead of Sweden. Germany ended up in fifth place.
At the beginning, Romania and Norway were in the lead. David Zobel stayed in the middle as the German starting runner. Zobel took his time in the prone position, but he hit all the targets and returned to the trail in third place after France and Norway. Fabien Claude led the field. But Johannes Dale-Skjevdal and Zobel kept up the pace well.
The leading trio then had problems in the standing position. Norway and France missed once. Zobel even missed three times and had to complete a penalty loop. This meant that Germany lost a lot of time. Zobel handed over to Philipp Nawrath in 15th place, who had to make up a lot of the gap. At the time, the Norwegian Johan-Olav Botn and the French Émilien Jacquelin were at the top.
Afterwards, Zobel said on ARD about his penalty loop: “Boy, that wasn’t necessary. The ski ran outstanding today. Unfortunately, with the mistake, it was a wasted day.” Nawrath showed an appealing running performance and fought his way forward bit by bit. The German had to reload once in the prone position and came back on the track in eleventh place. Until the standing stage, Nawrath made up places again. The lead remained unchanged even after the standing attack: France ahead of Norway.
Nawrath missed once, but he still moved up to eighth place. He showed himself strong on the track and sent Philipp Horn into fourth place in the relay. “The race was unplanned hard,” said Nawrath afterwards. While Horn was still on the track, the Norwegian Sturla Holm Lægreid was already at the shooting range and showed a flawless performance. Quentin Fillon Maillet also delivered despite a spare.
Horn arrived at the prone position in third place and also had to reload once. He then went back onto the trail behind the American Paul Schommer and ran faster than the leader. Lægreid left the shooting range before Fillon Maillet stepped onto the mat. Horn had the best chance of maintaining third position, but he had to reload three times while standing and fell back to fifth place. On the track he again gained important seconds and handed over to Justus Strelow in third place. Afterwards, Horn said: “I was incredibly happy that I hit the three spares. What Justus is doing is damn good. That was our tactic.”
Strelow adapted to the American and had to keep the Swede Martin Ponsiluoma at bay. While prone, Strelow shot quickly and powerfully and pulled away. He was able to keep the competition, who each had to reload once, at a distance of 16 seconds. However, Strelow had to reload twice while standing, so the USA and Sweden pulled away. Norway secured victory ahead of France and Sweden.