Kontiolahti: Denise Herrmann wins the women’s sprint – Vanessa Voigt narrowly misses the podium

When Denise Herrmann saw the green “1” on the scoreboard in the Kontiolahti finish area, a smile crossed the face of the biathlon Olympic champion. Although the 33-year-old had to tremble for a while almost exactly a month after her individual gold medal in Beijing, a little later she was able to celebrate her eighth World Cup victory after the sprint in Finland.

“Actually, I don’t like the track that much. But somehow I often manage to have really good races here,” said Herrmann, overjoyed. The 2019 pursuit world champion made a mistake in standing, but Norwegian Tiril Eckhoff (1/+5.0 seconds) and her former cross-country rival Stina Nilsson (1/+5.2) were also unable to outperform Herrmann.

In the first individual race after the Winter Games in China, the Ruhpolding native confirmed her excellent form. “I had a good rest at home, I drove here with good thoughts, I had good legs and really good material under my feet,” said the sports soldier on “ZDF”.

Somewhat surprisingly, Nilsson, who, like Herrmann, had dared to switch from cross-country skiing to biathlon, made it onto the podium. A tenth place in the pursuit of Hochfilzen was the best World Cup result for the 28-year-old Swede so far. “I’m a little shocked because I haven’t competed in a race since Ruhpolding,” said Nilsson.

Kontiolahti: Voigt strong sixth

The clean-shooting Vanessa Voigt finished sixth after a strong race over 7.5 km, 16.7 seconds back. For the 24-year-old, it was the best World Cup result of her career, after she had already finished fourth in the Olympic individual. Vanessa Hinz also hit all of her ten shots to round off a strong team result for the German Ski Association (DSV) in twelfth (+33.7).

This gives the German ski hunters an excellent starting position for their pursuers on Sunday (12:45 p.m. live on Eurosport and on Eurosport on Joyn). Franziska Hildebrand (1/+1:15.1 minutes) was 28th, Franziska Preuß made it to 32nd after three shooting errors (+1:24.5), as did Janina Hettich (2/+1:51.1). Rank 40 not in the top spots.

(SID)