biathlon
DSV women in third place in relay – Norway wins
The German biathletes around Vanessa Voigt came in third place in the relay. photo
© Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency/AP/dpa
The German biathletes get the next podium place with the relay. Even more would have been possible.
Three weeks after the emotional World Cup silver medal in Oberhof, the German biathletes missed their first relay victory in more than two years, but with third place they got their fourth podium place in the fifth World Cup team competition.
Because anchor Denise Herrmann-Wick needed a total of five spare rounds, Norway secured victory ahead of France on Saturday in Östersund, Sweden.
Janina Hettich-Walz, Hanna Kebinger, Vanessa Voigt and Herrmann-Wick were 27.2 seconds behind after a total of seven extra rounds. “It was a bad race,” Herrmann-Wick said disappointedly on ZDF.
If the DSV quartet had stayed ahead of France, they would have won the crystal globe for the overall relay standings. “That was on our minds the whole time, a win was our goal today, that was within reach. But I couldn’t make it across the finish line,” said Herrmann-Wick. In the end, Germany finished fourth in the standings, one point behind Sweden.
After two spare rounds in the standing position, Hettich-Walz sent Kebinger into the race in sixth place, 13.1 seconds behind. And Kebinger took advantage of the competition’s blunders and moved to the top with clean shooting. 0.4 seconds ahead of Italy, Voigt went into their section.
A quartet quickly formed with Germany, Italy, France and Norway. This then became a duo because Voigt and Norway’s Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold also had no spares in the second standing stage. Sprint world champion Herrmann-Wick and Marte Olsbu Röiseland went out on the track together. But because Herrmann-Wick couldn’t handle the shooting range this time, it wasn’t enough to win.