For double Olympic gold medallist Laura Dahlmeier, winning the Biathlon World Cup again has moved a long way off. The seven times World Champion in the sprint over 7.5 km at the World Cup in Oslo after two penalty rounds clearly missed the top 20 in 28th place. the Partenkirchen lost 1:30,9 minutes to winner Anastasiya Kuzmina from Slovakia.
Best German at Holmenkollen was the faultless Franziska Hildebrand (Clausthal-Zellerfeld/46.2 seconds back) in sixth place.
“I can’t exactly explain it either,” said Dahlmeier on ARD television about her two mistakes in the reclining stroke:”It’s a pity, of course, if you waste all your chances during a reclining shoot-out.
For Olympic gold medallist Kuzmina (1 penalty round) it was her fifth victory of the season and the tenth World Cup success of her career. She won before the four-time Olympic champion Darya Domratschewa (Belarus/+8.9/0) and the Ukrainian Julia Djima (+29.2/0).
Kuzmina took over the yellow jersey of Kaisa Mäkäräinen (667) in the overall World Cup with 673 points, and only 40 after four penalty rounds. was. Dahlmeier (579) is 94 points behind the three-time Olympic champion. Four individual races are still pending this winter, with a maximum of 240 points still to be scored.
Vanessa Hinz (Schliersee/+1:29.2 minutes/2 penalty rounds), who had won her first World Cup race in the mass start on Sunday at Kontiolahti in Finland, finished just ahead of Dahlmeier (+1:30.9)25. Behind Franziska Preuß (Haag/+1:37.9/2) finished 30th. Denise Herrmann (Oberwiesenthal/+2:07.0) was 43rd after four penalty rounds, Maren Hammerschmidt (Winterberg/+ 2:18.4) also missed four times and reached only 50th place.
“It wasn’t what we were expecting today,” said national coach Gerald Hönig:”Today the girls at the shooting range didn’t bring out what they are capable of.
After a rest day on Friday, the penultimate World Cup of the season will continue on Saturday with the women’s relay (12.30 a. m.) and the men’s pursuer (15.15 a. m.). On Sunday (12.00 o’ clock) the women compete in their hunting race (12 o’ clock), the men’s relay (14.45/all ARD and Eurosport).