The German biathletes struggled over the softened track, Simon Schempp and Co. also wobbled at the shooting range. It was alarming – but four weeks before the Olympic Games, after a disappointing fourth place in the Ruhpolding season, nobody wanted to fall into panic:”We should not see this as a bad omen. If we have fewer reloaders, this can become something else,”said Benedikt Doll.
German national coach Mark Kirchner also wanted the moderate result of his quartet with a view to the winter games in South Korea (9th place). till 25. I think we still have a good chance of making it to the podium at the Olympics. With such a competition you have to be fourth first. I’m not afraid, the boys have already had good races”, said Kirchner.
But this time it was less good. Only flawless Erik Lesser (Frankenhain) convinced as the starter runner. However, Doll (Breitnau), Arnd Peiffer (Clausthal-Zellerfeld) and Schempp (Uhingen) then needed ten reloaders.
After 4×7.5 km, Germany was 1’26.5 “behind Norway, who made it to the top favourites for the Olympics with a strong performance and a win. Without former champion Ole Einar Björndalen, the Scandinavians (seven reloaders) won ahead of France (6/+24.9 seconds) and Russia (4/53.4). The last victory of a German men’s relay thus dates from the 21st century. January 2017.
The German athletes showed themselves to be reasonable:”With such performances, you can’t fight in front. That’s not the egg yolk. We definitely can do better than that. We need an aha-experience now. Then we will be able to attack right at the front again,”said Schempp,”That wasn’t a good runner. I’ve had such a hard time of it. It just wasn’t fun,”admitted Doll.
As expected, Kirchner did without Roman Rees, who finished fourth on Wednesday, the best individual result of the men’s race this year and thus also won the Olympic ticket. The race in the Chiemgau was finally the last race before the Winter Games, so the original formation was to be tested in the fight with the strong competition, which also relied largely on the top players.
On Saturday the women attack over 4×6 km. The DSV quartet led by Laura Dahlmeier, whose winning streak tore in Oberhof last weekend, wants to gain self-confidence for the Olympics with a victory. Franziska Preuß, Franziska Hildebrand and Denise Herrmann enter the track before Dahlmeier, who had achieved the worst result (48th) of her career in the singles on Thursday.
On Sunday the mass start races conclude the second home World Cup. Next week the final rehearsal for the Olympic Games will take place in Antholz/Italy.