After second place in Kontiolahti, the German women’s relay just missed out on the top three at the Biathlon World Cup in Hochfilzen. It won after 4 x 6 kilometers France ahead of Sweden (+ 10.4 seconds / 9 spares) and Italy (+ 18.5 sec. / 4).
The German quartet had to settle for fourth place after five spare rounds, 33.7 seconds back. With Anna Weidel, Franziska Preuß, Vanessa Voigt and Denise Herrmann-Wick, the DSV team had good prospects for the podium for a long time. However, a total of four missed shots by Herrmann-Wick was too many to get on the podium.
“Fourth place is always thankless. My teammates did a great preparatory work. I tried to get another good series standing, but the girls next to me don’t allow themselves any mistakes right now. You have to have a sparkling clean series to be at the front“, Herrmann-Wick assessed her race after crossing the finish line on ZDF.
Weidel strong at the shooting range
Starting runner Weidel was able to clear all five targets directly in prone position and thus maintain contact with the leading Swede Lin Persson. Even in the standing position, everything went well for the 26-year-old DSV ski hunter. After five quick and safe shots, she took third place behind Sweden and Italy (+11.8 seconds). On the way to the first change, Weidel had to let France pass.
“It was very tough today, these are not my terms. It is extremely slow and I found it extremely difficult“, explained Weidel afterwards. She coped well with the pressure as the starting runner, even if she was extremely nervous: “But I figured it’s better than being home and watching.“
The athletes at the shooting range at the 1st shooting
Preuss must let something tear off
Preuss was 22 seconds behind before their six kilometers. She couldn’t regain anything until prone, but with five goals she reduced the gap to the now-leading French women to 20 seconds. Sweden lost the top spot with two spares. The order didn’t change much after the next round at the shooting range, even if Preuss’ deficit increased again. She was fourth, 33 seconds behind Dorothea Wierer of Italy.
“Yesterday I was a bit kinked that it didn’t work out at the shooting range. So today I tried to stay relaxed and trust in what I can actually do. That’s why I’m relieved that it worked with ten goals“, said Preuss after her performance.
Voigt stays cool and comes back
As the third German in the group, Voigt went into the cross-country ski run, the DSV team was still almost half a minute behind the leaders. In the first shooting, the flawless Thuringian benefited from three spare rounds from Hanna Öberg and thus briefly moved up to third place. However, the Swede quickly recovered and restored the old ranking. After the second standing stage, however, everything tightened again. None of the top four nations was left without a spare, and suddenly Voigt was back within ten seconds of the lead.
“The one spare didn’t have to be. I saw that the others were slipping up and tried to shoot a faster rhythm“, said Voigt later. While Öberg stormed to the top and there surpassed the competitors, Voigt pushed past Italy on the course and handed over to anchor Herrmann-Wick in third place.
Four mistakes by Herrmann-Wick cost the podium
Thursday’s sprint winner, together with Julia Simon from France, immediately closed in on Sweden, but after two spare rounds prone she fell back to fourth place. France at the top was now 23 seconds behind. Herrmann-Wick was able to almost halve this deficit by the final shooting, but had to reload twice again. With that, the pedestal was out of reach.