Without the biathlon Olympic gold medallists Laura Dahlmeier and Arnd Peiffer, the German single-mixed relay team clearly missed the podium at the World Cup in Kontiolahti. Vanessa Hinz (Schliersee) and Roman Rees (Schauinsland) finished eleventh after ten reloaders in the victory of France (6 reloaders). The second place in the non-Olympic discipline went to Austria (7th), Norway secured third place (1 penalty round) with individual Olympic champion Johannes Thingnes Bö.
Up to the half of the race the German duo was still close to the podium places, but three Hinz reloaders at their second lying shooting took a lot of time. In the following standing attack, the Relay World Champion needed three more spare cartridges and thus shattered all hopes of a top ranking. In the end, the gap to the French was 58.5 seconds.
“There were simply too many reloaders,” Hinz said on ZDF:”I would have liked to have given the novel not so much of a backlog, but it was like this:” Rees, who only needed two spare cartridges, added:”Today it was already tight and not quite round.
In the first single-mixed relay of the season at the World Cup season opener in Östersund/Sweden Hinz took second place with Erik Lesser (Frankenhain). The discipline will be held for the first time at the World Cup next year.
Dahlmeier (Partenkirchen) and Peiffer (Clausthal-Zellerfeld) as well as Simon Schempp (Uhingen) had been spared in both the single-mixed and mixed relay, but will run again on Sunday (from 1.30 pm) in the mass starts. The next World Cup in Oslo will start on Thursday.