biathlon
“Super happy”: Hettich-Walz from nowhere to World Championship silver
Janina Hettich-Walz surprisingly won silver in the World Cup singles. photo
© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
Janina Hettich-Walz shows the best race of her career. The 27-year-old surprisingly secured silver at the Biathlon World Championships. Two teammates narrowly missed out on medals.
Janina Hettich-Walz covered her face with her hands and could hardly believe her spectacular silver coup. With the best race of her career, the 27-year-old was crowned runner-up world champion out of nowhere in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, giving the German Biathlon team finally got their first medal in the sixth World Cup race.
The sports soldier has never stood alone on the World Cup podium before, without any shooting errors, Hettich-Walz only had to admit defeat to the new Italian world champion Lisa Vittozzi, 20.5 seconds behind. Bronze went to France’s Julia Simon, who failed to triumph for the first time at this World Cup after a penalty minute.
“I still can’t really believe it. I have no idea how I managed to flip the switch,” said Hettich-Walz, shaking his head repeatedly during the first interviews. The Baden-Württemberg native had previously only finished 35th and 25th in the sprint and pursuit and then struggled with herself. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” she said of her second World Cup medal.
Three years ago she won silver in the women’s relay in Slovenia. “At the World Cup, only the medals count, so I’m super happy that I was able to get them today,” said Hettich-Walz.
“This is a medal for the whole team”
In the five previous competitions, Germany’s biathletes had come away empty-handed and had mainly struggled with the poor skis – that was different now. “I felt really good and powerful. The material was so much better,” said Hettich-Walz, who had never previously placed in the top 15 in a World Cup competition on her own, and sent a greeting to the team: “That’s it a medal for the whole team.”
For a short time, the title even seemed within reach for her flawless performance, but on the final lap she ran out of strength and the gap to Vittozzi grew. The last German individual world champion to date was Laura Dahlmeier in 2017. Two years ago in Beijing, Denise Herrmann-Wick won Olympic gold in the oldest biathlon race.
Grotian and Voigt are also strong
There was almost even more precious metal under the floodlights in the atmospheric World Cup arena in Nove Mesto. World Cup debutant Selina Grotian and Olympic fourth-place finisher Vanessa Voigt also narrowly missed the podium without any shooting errors, taking fourth and fifth place. The duo was a good half a minute short of bronze.
“It’s a crazy day for the Germans. You can’t understand it,” said 19-year-old Grotian, who made zero mistakes in an individual for the first time in the first World Cup race of her career: “For me it was like in a movie. I I can’t even understand it.”
Preuß missed the top ten
Medal candidate Franziska Preuß incurred two penalty minutes and, as the weakest of the German quartet in 15th place, surprisingly missed out on the top ten. “That’s super cool for Janina, I’m really happy about it. There’s nothing nicer, you can only take your hat off,” said Preuß, who traveled to the season’s highlight as Germany’s great hope for a medal.
After two sixth places in the sprint and pursuit, Preuß incurred a penalty minute in the first shooting and was immediately under pressure. The former relay world champion showed how strong she is in the individual at the start of the season when she was only 0.1 seconds behind Vittozzi in her second place in Östersund.
At the end of the opening World Cup in Sweden, Preuß was the first German to wear the yellow jersey since Dahlmeier in 2017. A corona infection then prevented the Bavarian from being able to defend the coveted shirt. But Preuß fought back and was fit again in time for the World Cup. She completed the second and third shooting without any mistakes, but another mistake prevented a better result. However, Hettich-Walz, Grotian and Voigt didn’t miss a single target.