When the wind died down, Benedikt Doll saw his chance. The podium at the Czech pursuit in Nove Mesto seemed within reach, but the former biathlon world champion hit just four of the five targets on the last standing stage.
And since he had to let his Swedish competitor Martin Ponsiluoma pull away in the final lap, Doll ended up fourth after 12.5 kilometers with a total of two penalties.
“I’m very happy,” Doll told ARD, despite missing his first podium finish in an individual race since December 15, 2022. “In the last shooting the wind was completely gone, I could have shot a clean sheet. But then the thought came up, now there’s no wind, now I have to shoot quickly. I just had too much movement on it.”
Doll makes up eight places
In the end, the 32-year-old was only 3.5 seconds short of third place. “On the descent my ski was really great, but on the mountain it was a bit dull and then the ponsi tore a gap,” he said. Doll was unable to close this hole when Johannes Thingnes Bö performed in a commanding manner again, even though he had read the book about the biathlon dominator from Norway the evening before the race. “I read the first ten pages of the Bö book, which gave me enough inspiration for today,” said Doll.
After finishing twelfth in the sprint, he made up eight places. Teammate Roman Rees, on the other hand, fell back one position and finished ninth. Nevertheless, the German men can look forward to an improvement in form after the medalless home world championship in Oberhof. Philipp Nawrath as 11th (3/ 2:00,9), Justus Strelow as 17th (2/ 2:26,2), David Zobel as 18th (1/ 2:28,1) and Johannes Kühn as 21st (4th /2:55.0) completed the team result.
“It was finally a race in the right direction again,” said Zobel, who improved by 20 places and had a lot of fun on the track. “The mood was outstanding, that’s awesome and I was also very satisfied with the shooting.”
Herrmann-Wick sixth again, Kebinger strong
Hanna Kebinger also ended her pursuit race with a smile. The 25-year-old achieved the best individual World Cup result of her career with seventh place (1:10.3 minutes). Two mistakes in the last standing stage prevented an even better placement.
The best German was Denise Herrmann-Wick, who repeated her sixth place in the sprint race. She had three penalties and finished 1:09.6 behind winner Marte Olsbu Röiseland. Despite a shooting error, the Norwegian beat her teammate Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold (1/2.2 seconds) and Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet from France (0/15.3) on the final loop.
Vanessa Voigt was twelfth (2/ 2:03.4), Janina Hettich-Walz as 24th (3/ 2:47.5) and Anna Weidel (3/ 2:54.6) right behind her in the fight for the also do not intervene in the front seats. Sophia Schneider wasn’t even at the start. With a view to the two remaining World Cups in Oslo and Östersund, she should recover from her muscular problems. The fit athletes can once again enjoy the backdrop of the 2024 World Cup location in the two mixed relay races on Sunday.
