After the first World Cup victory of his career, biathlete Philipp Nawrath is looking forward to his unexpected debut as overall World Cup leader. “It’s crazy that it worked out with the yellow jersey. I’m excited to see how it looks on me,” said the 30-year-old to the German Press Agency in Östersund.
With his sprint success, the Bavarian took the coveted bib from his teammate Roman Rees on Saturday in Sweden. He will wear it for the first time this Sunday (4 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport) in the pursuit.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever been in this position. I’ve only been able to experience it in smaller races so far, it will be completely new in the World Cup,” said Nawrath about the new role as the hunted. The Bavarian will go into the cross-country ski trail with a 19-second lead over veteran Tarjei Bö from Norway. Nawrath doesn’t feel any pressure after fulfilling a dream. For the first time, the ski hunter from SK Nesselwang made it onto the World Cup podium alone. On Thursday he was part of the men’s relay team that came third.
DSV with a good start to the season
The start of the German season is going fantastically. At the top of the overall ranking for men are three starters from the German Ski Association: Nawrath (102 points) leads ahead of Justus Strelow (101) and Roman Rees (90). And Franziska Preuß, a German in yellow, will also be taking part in the women’s hunting race on Sunday. “The fact that we are now at the top is evidence of a really good team performance. We have created the perfect basic conditions,” said Nawrath. The ski technicians in particular are doing an outstanding job after the new fluorine ban and have so far delivered perfect boards.
But the individual achievements also match this. Rees first triumphed in the singles last Sunday. Now Nawrath managed the rare feat of not making any mistakes in the sprint. He recently checked with a close friend to see how often he managed to finish a race and hit all the targets. “I have to look back for a long time and on average I only manage to do it every three years. That’s not really a big hit,” he said: “When it does work and everything works out, you’re even more pleased.”
