Denise Herrmann-Wick ran to the second world title of her biathlon career on Friday afternoon. The Olympic champion was unbeatable in the Oberhof World Championship sprint and relegated top favorite Hanna Öberg to second place. After crossing the finish line, the German biathlon star was completely dissolved.
“It’s unbelievable! Today I was really excited and couldn’t even get my pulse down when I walked in. I had to fight extremely hard to stay with myself,” said Herrmann-Wick on the “ZDF” microphone shortly after her outstanding victory from their very special day in their Thuringian homeland.
The 34-year-old was moved by her own performance, which she had previously achieved on the cross-country ski run and at the shooting range in Oberhof: “That I can conjure up a race with 0-0 in the sprint in the snow today, and that at the home -WM, you can’t describe it with words!”
Herrmann-Wick shot clean twice, but was still almost ten seconds behind top favorite Hanna Öberg of Sweden, who was also clean-shooting.
Thanks to a sensational final lap, Herrmann-Wick, who ran a few minutes ahead of Öberg (start number 28) with start number 24, pushed past her competitor and then beamed all over her face.
Herrmann-Wick celebrates after the final round: “It was enough!”
“The euphoria was extremely high after the mixed relay. It went really easily today. I tried to do my thing calmly while shooting. I might have gotten a few seconds while shooting. That was me but the bottom line is that it doesn’t matter, because I knew that I had good legs on the track,” Herrmann-Wick reported on “ZDF” after the second gold medal in her fourth participation in the World Cup.
The sports soldier was overwhelmed by her own performance in front of thousands of local biathlon fans: “One hardly dares to dream that something like this can happen here. The fact that I can experience it today, with family and friends at the side of the track, is all the more more beautiful.”
After the second shooting, she tried on the final lap to bring all her reserves of strength to the track: “And it was enough,” the new sprint world champion rejoiced.