It wasn’t long ago that the best German biathletes were allowed to listen to analyzes like “historical debacles”. At the World Championships in Oberhof in mid-February, the male staff of the German Ski Association (DSV) managed to say goodbye without a medal for the first time since relevant records. Little, very little, almost nothing suggested that this team would win a World Cup in the same year, especially not a so-called double victory. But: Östersund 2023 is not Oberhof 2023.
The two German biathletes Roman Rees, 30, and Justus Strelow, 26, have truly achieved something that had last happened to the DSV men on January 8, 2017, when Simon Schempp won the Oberhof mass start ahead of Erik Lesser: a German double success in the World Cup, succeeded in the first individual competition of the season this Sunday in Östersund, Sweden. Rees took the win with a shooting error including a penalty minute ahead of Strelow, who also made a miss but needed 12.1 seconds longer to cover the 20-kilometer distance. Johannes Thingnes Bö, the outstanding dominator from Norway and five-time world champion from Oberhof, came third, 25 seconds behind (two penalty minutes).
Strelow had already looked like the likely winner of this race. Rees, who started after him, intercepted him. It was the greatest success for both of them; they had never been so well placed in the World Cup before. “Of course I appreciate the novel,” explained Strelow on ARD after the race. Rees, however, could hardly believe it at that point. “Incredible, I wasn’t sure for so long whether this could really be true,” said Rees. Last season Johannes Thingnes Bö won almost every World Cup race. Rees explained that he automatically suspected for a long time that “the squall must still be lurking somewhere.” But this time he lurked in vain.