Zhangjiakou (dpa) – The German biathlon men have remained at the Olympic Winter Games, as they did in 2010, without a relay medal.
Erik Lesser, Roman Rees, Benedikt Doll and Philipp Nawrath had to settle for fourth place at the Winter Olympics in China after one penalty on the last standing stage and nine spares. After 4 x 7.5 kilometers, the quartet of the German Ski Association was 1:04.3 minutes behind Olympic champion Norway.
Silver went to France in Zhangjiakou, bronze went to the Russian team. “There are these three medals and we have the wood medal,” said Doll on ZDF. When the unfortunate German finisher Nawrath leaned on his sticks in disappointment and shook his head, the medal winners celebrated around him. Nawrath’s blunder on the last standing stage, including a penalty loop, cost the Germans a possible and much-hoped-for medal.
“Philipp did his best. The position of the final runner is not so easy,” said Doll. “Today is a case in point: you win as a team and you lose as a team.”
Long wait for a title
Germany won silver in Sochi in 2014 and bronze in Pyeongchang four years ago. The Skijäger last won gold in 2006 in Turin and have been waiting for another big coup since the 2015 World Cup title in Finland. For the biathletes, after eight of a total of eleven races, it remains a medal. Denise Herrmann surprisingly won gold over 15 kilometers in the first individual race. On Wednesday (8.45 a.m. CET) the women’s relay team has its next chance at a medal in the mountains north-west of Beijing.
At minus 15.7 degrees, start runner Lesser went into the last Olympic race of his career. The 33-year-old Thuringian had already announced that he would not continue until the Games in four years. Despite his disappointing performance as 67th in the individual with five shooting errors, he was given preference over Johannes Kühn, who, despite a win of the season, was not set up by national coach Mark Kirchner. Lesser shot clean on the first shooting, but had to reload three times on the second.
The day before he “practiced reloading at minus 21 degrees, that went quite well. In the heat of the moment I didn’t get the shot in twice. It was annoying because I wasted a lot of time,” said Lesser. He went back out in tenth, handing over to Roman Rees in eighth, 40.9 seconds back.
The 28-year-old from Oberried didn’t show any weaknesses in prone either. Although he moved up to fifth place, the gap to the leading Russians with Alexander Loginow grew. After a spare in standing, Rees closed the gap on his pursuers. Halfway through the race, the Russian squadron was more than 30 seconds ahead of France.
An open race despite a deficit
But it developed into a gripping fight and an absolutely open race. Doll moved up to fourth after his first clean outing to the shooting range, had to reload on the second and moved up to bronze.
At this point, the Russians seemed to have rushed, but their final runner Eduard Latypow, like Nawrath, caught a black day and gave up the apparently comfortable lead. The Norwegian Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen took first place and kept his French rival Quentin Fillon Maillet at a distance until the finish. “The best thing is that he stays mentally relaxed,” Rees said of Nawrath. But the 29-year-old from Nesselwang showed nerves at the last shooting. Three spare rounds and one penalty meant the end of the battle for medals.