Season opener
Biathlon: German fourth in mixed relay
Roman Rees is competing for the German mixed relay team in Östersund. photo
© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa/archive image
Two races, twice no podium: The German biathletes are good at the start of the season, but not yet good enough. The individual races follow on Sunday.
The German biathletes remained without podium places in the first two competitions of the new winter. At the At the start of the season in Östersund, Sweden, Roman Rees, Philipp Nawrath, Sophia Schneider and Vanessa Voigt had to settle for fourth place in the mixed relay, after Hanna Kebinger and Justus Strelow had previously finished seventh in the single mixed relay.
In the Olympic race over 4 x 6 kilometers, the DSV quartet used eight spares and was unable to intervene in the fight for the top three. France secured victory well ahead of Norway and Italy. Germany was 55.7 seconds behind the leaders, 16 seconds behind third place. Overall, the Germans showed some good performances, but in the end there were one or two mistakes too many.
Rees (30) needed two spares while standing and in fourth place, almost ten seconds behind the leader, switched to Nawrath, who came into the team at short notice for the slightly injured Benedikt Doll. The 30-year-old, who suffered a broken metatarsal in the summer, came to the standing position as the leader of a small leading group: with a spare he only had to let Norway’s superstar Johannes Thingnes Bö go by 17.9 seconds and handed over to Schneider in second place.
Strong competition
The 26-year-old performed well until her only reload in the second shooting, but then had problems getting the cartridge into the magazine, lost time and slipped back one place. Final runner Voigt, who entered the trail 30 seconds behind the leading Norwegian team, performed solidly. The 26-year-old Thuringian couldn’t keep up with the top competition, but secured fourth place thanks to a good final lap. “The last few days have been rather tough. The best in the world are in the final position. But I think I did quite well and I’m quite satisfied,” said Voigt on ARD.
A few hours before the start of the competition, the German Ski Association (DSV) announced that veteran Benedikt Doll (33) would not compete in the mixed relay as a precautionary measure due to minor “infectious symptoms”. According to team doctor Jan Wüstenfeld, he should probably start in the individual over 20 kilometers on Sunday. The women start their 15 kilometers at 11:20 a.m.