After the home World Championships in Oberhof without a medal, the German biathlon men also missed a podium place at the start of the World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
At the 15th win of the season by Norway’s dominator Johannes Thingnes Bö, Roman Rees took eighth place in the sprint over ten kilometers as the best athlete of the German Ski Association (DSV). Rees missed a disc in prone. He finished 1:27.4 minutes behind the overall World Cup leader.
Bö, who won the World Cup sprint classification early due to his success, gave the competition with the fastest time no chance and made no mistakes at the shooting range. Second was his brother Tarjei Bö, also shooting clean, 30 seconds back. The podium was completed by another Norwegian, Vetle Sjastad Christiansen (1 penalty/ 1:15.2 minutes).
Former world champion Benedikt Doll had two penalties. Thanks to the seventh fastest time, he still finished twelfth (1:45.0 minutes). Justus Strelow (1:55.8 minutes) was 16th with one penalty, Johannes Kühn missed the target twice on the second penalty. As a result, he fell back to 20th place (2:16.6 minutes). Philipp Nawrath in 30th place (3 shooting errors/ 2:32.6 minutes) and David Zobel in 38th place (3/ 2:46.1 minutes) also played no part in the decision about the top positions.
