The victory in the German biathlon Mecca went to Russia ahead of Germany and Belarus. Austria’s team consisting of David Komatz/Simon Eder/Patrick Jakob/Harald Lemmerer allowed ten spare rounds and was 3:19.9 minutes behind the winner.
In the absence of Austria’s best points collector so far, Felix Leitner – he is currently completing a pre-Olympic high-altitude training camp like some top aces – head coach Ricco Groß continued to rely on his greater experience at the beginning. After 7.5 km twice by Komatz and Eder, the team was in ninth place, the less experienced Jakob and Lemmerer then lost places.
In the two previous seasons, the ÖSV team only managed to finish 17th and 16th. Next weekend there will be another relay race at the Olympic dress rehearsal in Antholz. But first on Sunday Lisa Hauser and Simon Eder will be in pursuit (both ORF 1) at the start.
The two-time winners of the season from Norway, where the top stars Johannes and Tarjei Bö as well as Sturla Holm Laegreid were missing, only ended up in seventh place. Chaos had reigned early on at the shooting range, later the Norwegians were credited with two minutes. The scene seemed strange, but was initially difficult to resolve in TV images.
Source: Nachrichten
