The German biathletes missed the first podium place of the Olympic year at the World Cup in Oberhof. At the start-finish-victory of the Slovakian Anastasiya Kuzmina, the seven-time world champion Laura Dahlmeier (Partenkirchen) was seventh best athlete of the German Ski Association (DSV). Franziska Hildebrand (Clausthal-Zellerfeld) finished eleventh.
“I ran out of breath at the end. However, the joy that things went well again prevails,”said Dahlmeier.
German national coach Gerald Hönig was satisfied with the team’s performance:”The girls have shown that six of them can attack in front in a wide, closed, compact and powerful team. This is a much better situation than if we had a podium, and the next one comes in 35th place.”
In the sprint race on Thursday Hildebrand had only just passed the podium, she went into the hunting race in fourth place. Until the last standing shootout she was in second place, then she made her only mistake. Dahlmeier, who had entered the race from 13th place, also missed the last standing attack and missed a better ranking.
Despite two penalty rounds, Kuzmina was a bit too big for her fourth win of the season. She won ahead of the faultless Italian Dorothea Wierer, the Ukrainian Wita Semerenko (0).
Denise Herrmann (Oberwiesenthal/2) also showed a good performance. After finishing 45th in the sprint, she finished in 16th place. Vanessa Hinz (Schliersee/1) was 18th, Maren Hammerschmidt (Winterberg/3) was 19th, Franziska Preuß (Haag/2)21st.
On Sunday (from 11.30 a. m. at the LIVETICKER) the first seasons of the new year will mark the end of the races in Oberhof. Already next Wednesday we will continue with the second part of the home races, then the World Cup in Ruhpolding will take place.