Benedikt Doll and Arnd Peiffer presented the badly decimated German biathletes with the first top ten finishes of the Olympic year at the World Cup in Oberhof. Sprint World Champion Doll showed a clear improvement compared to the sprint race at the shooting range and was ninth in the pursuit on Saturday after a penalty round. Directly behind Peiffer followed in tenth place (two mistakes).
“I’m very, very happy, the shooting went very well”, said Doll:”Today some people hit well, so it didn’t go that far forward.
The victory went to the Frenchman Martin Fourcade as in the sprint on Friday. The six-time overall World Cup winner clinched his fourth victory of the season, 65th place, despite a penalty round. Overall World Cup victory. The Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Bö came second ahead of his brother Tarjei.
Roman Rees was third best athlete of the German Ski Association (DSV) in 19th place. Johannes Kühn disappointed with six shooting mistakes and finished 34th.
Prior to the race, the DSV had announced that mass start world champion Simon Schempp will not compete due to back problems in both the pursuit and the relay on Sunday (15 o’ clock in the LIVETICKER).
On Thursday, local hero Erik Lesser had already declared his decision to give up sprinting and persecution in the Thuringian Forest due to an infection. His start in the final relay race is still open. The next World Cup will start in Ruhpolding on Wednesday.