Biathlon: Dahlmeier misses top spot at comeback

Laura Dahlmeier (Partenkirchen) has clearly missed a top ranking when returning to the site of her World Cup fairy tale. Ten months after her five-fold triumph at Hochfilzen, the 24-year-old had to settle for 16th place at the start of the Olympic season after two shooting mistakes.

Best German in the victory of the flawless Belarussian Darja Domratschewa was Franziska Hildebrand (Clausthal-Zellerfeld/1) in eighth place. Slovakia’s Anastasia Kusmina (1) and Italy’s Dorothea Wierer (1) completed the podium.

“It took me a little while to get in. But I got better and better from lap to lap,”said Dahlmeier, who had missed the start of the World Cup in Östersund last week due to a cold:”I’m glad I made it to the first race. There’s still air upstairs, of course.”

Denise Herrmann (Oberwiesenthal), on the other hand, had to pay an apprenticeship fee after her high-flying World Cup opener, when she had surprisingly won in the sprint and in the pursuit. The 28-year-old, who only changed from cross-country skiing to biathlon last year, was unable to cope with the difficult conditions. She missed four times and finished 28th in spite of a good mileage.

“The standing attack was a disaster,”said Herrmann, adding:”The snowfall didn’t irritate me at all when I was shooting. It was rather tough on the track.”

Vanessa Hinz (Schliersee/2) finished 27th in front of Herrmann, Maren Hammerschmidt (Winterberg/4)33rd. Karolin Horchler (Clausthal-Zellerfeld/2), who had replaced the sick Franziska Preuß (Haag), turned 43rd.

At the second World Cup in the Olympic Winter on Saturday the pursuit races are scheduled. From 12.15 (ARD and Eurosport) the men go to the cross-country skiing trail. The women’s competition will follow at 2.45 pm. The finale on Sunday will be the men’s (11.30 a. m.) and women’s relay races (14.10 a. m.).