Winter sports
Biathlon bet: Naked to the container
Coach Uros Velepec does not have to honor his bet. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
German biathlon coach Uros Velepec almost had to run naked to the wax container. Since the DSV athletes narrowly missed out on a triple success, that won’t happen – for now.
With his second place in the sprint race in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, Norway’s biathlon star Johannes Thingnes Bö saved German coach Uros Velepec from cashing in on a “special” bet. If the German athletes had achieved a triple success, Velepec would have had to run naked to the wax container.
“I actually didn’t want to talk about this bet. But thanks to Johannes it wasn’t necessary. But I can do it next time,” said the Slovenian in an interview with ZDF after Benedikt Doll’s victory and Philipp Nawrath’s third place. Teammate Philipp Horn ended up in fourth place and narrowly missed the podium in his debut this season.
“It’s very important that we are there and can fight with the Norwegians. It was like that in Östersund, in Hochfilzen we weren’t close, but here it’s different again,” said Velepec. “Confidence is the most important thing and now the whole team has self-confidence – including us coaches.”
Doll finished the sprint with a lead of 5.4 seconds over Bö, who should put direct pressure on Saturday (2:40 p.m./ZDF) in the pursuit race. Nawrath starts 37 seconds behind the 33-year-old Black Forester and Horn two seconds later. He starts the race at the same time as Sturla Holm Laegreid – another Norwegian.