Biathlon: Women’s relay team wins Olympic dress rehearsal in Ruhpolding

In the last relay race before the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, the German biathletes around a strong Laura Dahlmeier have found their way back into the winning track and underpinned their gold ambitions.

The DSV quartet with final runner Dahlmeier, Franziska Preuß, Franziska Hildebrand and Denise Herrmann won the dress rehearsal at the World Cup in Ruhpolding after nine reloaders with 2.9 seconds ahead of Italy (three reloaders) and 17.2 seconds ahead of Sweden (5).

“It’s a lot of fun to win against the backdrop. We showed today that we can be counted on,”said Dahlmeier, who as the final runner had rushed from fourth place to the top, on ZDF. After Hochfilzen it was the second victory of the season for the German relay team. In Oberhof, he finished second last time.

National coach Gerald Hönig had renounced Vanessa Hinz (Schliersee) and Maren Hammerschmidt (Winterberg), who are usually the first choice in the squadron. They also belonged to the team that won last year’s World Cup title.

On Sunday (from 12.15 pm) 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.