Biathlon Olympic champion Denise Herrmann confirmed her excellent form and also won the Kontiolahti sprint. Almost exactly a month after the individual gold medal in Beijing, the 33-year-old was unbeatable in the first individual race after the Winter Games, despite a penalty loop. Herrmann stayed exactly five seconds ahead of Tiril Eckhoff (1 penalty) from Norway and thus celebrated her eighth World Cup victory.
“Actually, I don’t like the track that much. But somehow I often have very good races here,” said Herrmann, who made a mistake in standing shooting: “I had a good rest at home, I drove here with good thoughts, had good legs and really good material underfoot.” Two years ago, the sports soldier won the sprint in Kontiolahti.
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.). Franziska Hildebrand (1/+1:15.1 minutes) was 28th, Franziska Preuß did not make it into the top 30 after three shooting errors (+1:24.5), just like Janina Hettich.
Johannes Kühn is third, ski jumper Markus Eisenbichler second
The men were also able to celebrate a podium finish. Johannes Kühn, who won the sprint in Hochfilzen in December, ended up in third place with one penalty. The French overall World Cup leader Quentin Fillon Maillet shot clean and, in the absence of superstar Johannes Thingnes Bö, confidently took his sixth win of the season in the 10 km race. Second was Norwegian Filip Fjeld Andersen (0/+18.3).
With a deficit of 29.7 seconds, Kühn has a good starting position for the chase race on Sunday (2.40 p.m., both ZDF and Eurosport). Philipp Nawrath (1/+34.8) was also satisfied with his seventh place, Erik Lesser (1/+49.6) ended up in twelfth place. A little further back were Roman Rees (1/+1:02.8) in 20th, Benedikt Doll (3/+1:18.3) in 25th and David Zobel (2/+1:25.3) in rank 32. Before the race, positive corona tests from three Canadian and one Bulgarian athletes, as well as three German technicians, among others, caused some uproar.
In between even the leader in Oslo: ski jumper Markus Eisenbichler.
(Photo: Terje Bendiksby/dpa)
Ski jumping world champion Markus Eisenbichler has conquered a podium place in the first individual at the Holmenkollen in Oslo. The 30-year-old Bavarian jumped 130 meters twice on Saturday evening and took second place. Eisenbichler was only beaten by Marius Lindvik from Norway with a deficit of 88 centimeters and showed excellent form a week before the Ski Flying World Championships in Vikersund. Third place went to Norway’s Robert Johansson.
Eisenbichler had already shown a strong performance on Friday in mixed, on Saturday he had led after one round. In the duel for the yellow jersey of the overall World Cup leader, Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan increased his cushion against Germany’s Karl Geiger. Kobayashi (128 and 129.5 meters) took sixth place and thus landed one place in front of the violinist from Oberstdorf, who only partially showed his full potential with jumps of 126 and 132 meters. Behind the top German duo, Severin Freund (19th), Andreas Wellinger (25th) and Constantin Schmid (26th) also scored World Cup points. On Sunday there is another singles in Oslo.
In the women’s category, Katharina Althaus, who came second at the Olympics, was fifth on Saturday and achieved the only top German result. Local hero Silje Opseth celebrated the first World Cup victory of her career, Slovenia’s Nika Kriznar clearly leads the rankings before the final on Sunday. Althaus missed the start of the series because of her positive corona tests and is therefore far behind in the overall ranking.