It was only this one black target that the Black Forest biathlete Benedikt Doll missed in the Ochoza Forest in Nove Mesto. The round target for standing shooting is 11.5 centimeters wide and high; there is 50 meters between the shooter and the tiny black dot. And that one little tile, the first one from the left, it just wouldn’t fall. Only in the fourth and last possible attempt did Doll score, after 19 long seconds, as if the target had been stuck in the frame.
At the final shooting of this relay race on Saturday, the 33-year-old could have refined the black targets into a World Championship medal. If he had hit them all in the first attempt, as he did with the lying pad. He could then have sprinted towards the finish line with Norway and France for silver and bronze – but there were too many seconds between Doll and the top three final runners before the last kilometers. The men’s quartet of the German Ski Association fought for the medal positions in this World Championship until shortly before the end – in the end, Justus Strelow, Johannes Kühn, Philipp Nawrath and Doll remained in fourth place, which was known to be ungrateful.
As part of a group of four who crossed the finish line at the same time, Strelow handed over to Kühn without shooting errors, who had to reload once while lying down before incurring a penalty while standing and thus falling behind. Nawrath managed with one spare and put Doll in a good position for third place. Unlike the women early on Saturday afternoon, who won relay bronze thanks to Sophia Schneider, the DSV men came away empty-handed.
The Norwegians were probably also annoyed in the end, despite winning silver in the final spurt against the French
“It’s a shame, there was a lot in the last shooting, but I was missing the world-famous balls at the shooting range,” explained Doll. On the ZDF microphone shortly after the race, he seemed less depressed, more as if he could take what had happened with humor. He had won a bronze medal in the individual race two days earlier, the second of his career at the World Championships. “I actually wanted to repeat the individual shooting, but then I no longer had peace with the spares,” said Doll, who ended up shooting parallel with the Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet (who only needed one spare). “The QFM is simply incredibly strong when shooting standing,” said Doll about his competitor. “Maybe that unsettled or impressed me.”
The Norwegians were probably also annoyed in the end, despite winning silver in the final spurt against the French. Norway’s Vetle Sjastad Christiansen – one of the best finishers in the history of this sport – missed six shots while standing, had three penalties and was awarded the gold medal despite being a minute ahead of Sweden. Sebastian Samuelsson did better and crowned the Swedish team the Nove Mesto relay world champions.
And Doll? He had announced before the season that he wanted to comment on his future after the World Cup, which ends on Sunday with the two mass starts. Doll was asked whether it was his last World Cup season. “Some people are wondering,” he said. “And a lot of people will get an answer to that next week.”