Olympia 2018: Bronze medal for biathlon relay – victory for Sweden

The men’s relay has brought the German biathletes to a conciliatory conclusion at the Olympic Games.

Erik Lesser (Frankenhain), Benedikt Doll (Breitnau), sprint Olympic champion Arnd Peiffer (Clausthal-Zellerfeld) and Simon Schempp (Uhingen) won the bronze medal in Pyeongchang after 4×7.5 km despite three penalty rounds.

For the first time in history, gold went to the Swedish relay team, which won 55.5 seconds ahead of the Norwegians, with individual Olympic gold medallist Johannes Thingnes Bö. The German quartet was 2:07.1 minutes behind the Scandinavians. Four years ago in Sochi, Germany had won silver.

Start runner Lesser had handed over to Doll after only one reloader at first position, but the third of the pursuit had to go twice into the penalty round and fell back to fifth place. Peiffer led the German team with two flawless shooting inserts on the medal course again, but Schempp missed the possible gold at the shooting range.

Already in the individual competitions the German men with Peiffer’s sprint gold as well as silver by Schempp in the mass start and bronze of Doll had been successful in the pursuit. Laura Dahlmeier (Partenkirchen) had won three medals in the women’s event with her Olympic victories in sprint and pursuit as well as bronze in the singles.