Biathlon: Prussia best German in Mäkäräinen victory

The German biathletes have to wait for the first podium place of the World Cup winter. In the 7.5 km sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia, Franziska Preuß (Haag) came ninth after a penalty round as the best German. The 24-year-old had already been the most successful DSV athlete with tenth place in the singles on Thursday.

22-year-old Anna Weidel (Kiefersfelden), who finished her second World Cup race only 0.8 seconds behind Preuß Zehnte with an impeccable performance at the shooting range, celebrated a respectable success.

Meanwhile the flawless overall World Cup winner Kaisa Mäkäräinen celebrated her 24th triumph in the World Cup. The Finn beat the Italian Dorothea Wierer (0 penalty rounds/+14.8 seconds) and Justine Braisaz (0/+42.1) from France.

In the absence of double Olympic Champion Laura Dahlmeier (Partenkirchen), who is still in advanced training after a compulsory break due to illness and who will probably only enter the World Cup in the new year, Vanessa Hinz (Schliersee/2) finished 24th. Franziska Hildebrand (Clausthal-Zellerfeld) remained flawless but had to settle for 38th place after a crash.

One place ahead of Hildebrand came Karolin Horchler (Clausthal-Zellerfeld/1) to the finish, her sister Nadine (Willingen/1) was 41st Denise Herrmann (Oberwiesenthal/3) gave a top-placement already with three mistakes at the horizontal stop, she only landed on place 62 and even missed the qualification for the hunting race.

On Sunday, the two pursuit races (from 11.45 am in the LIVETICKER) will finish the start of the new season. In December there will be World Cups in Hochfilzen/Austria (from 13 December) and in Nove Mesto/Czech Republic (from 20 December). The World Championships will take place in March 2019 in Östersund/Sweden.