Winter sports: Biathlon: Mixed relay teams even without skis

After the renunciation of Laura Dahlmeier, the two mixed races in Östersund will take place for the World Cup season opener on Sunday (from 14.15 at the LIVETICKER) even without mass start world champion Simon Schempp.

“Simon doesn’t enter the World Cup until the singles,”said men’s national coach Mark Kirchner on Thursday.

Since Dahlmeier cannot start because of a cold, Vanessa Hinz (Schliersee) and Erik Lesser (Frankenhain) contest the single-mixed relay. Maren Hammerschmidt (Winterberg), Franziska Preuß (Haag), sprint world champion Benedikt Doll (Breitnau) and Arnd Peiffer (Clausthal-Zellerfeld) form the quartet of the German Ski Association (DSV) in the mixed relay (from 5.10 pm).

“The aim is to be at the top of the world in the mixed competitions as well as in the following individual races and to crack one or two Olympic qualifiers,”said the sporting director Björn Weisheit.

For the individual competitions, which start on Wednesday (29. Kirchner and national coach Gerald Hönig, who is responsible for the women’s team, will nominate two further protégés each time. The selection is made after the competitions in the second-class IBU-Cup, in which the DSV ski hunters can recommend themselves for a start in the World Cup.