World Cup in Kontiolahti: “It paid off”: Preuß finished on the podium

After the exhausting finish sprint against her two teammates, Franziska Preuß collapsed and gasped for air. At the end of the World Cup stop in Kontiolahti, Finland, the 30-year-old biathlete had every reason to smile after finishing third in the mass start.

Preuß led the strong women’s trio from the German Ski Association (DSV). Directly behind Preuß, who, like the Swedish winner Elvira Öberg, missed twice, Vanessa Voigt (0 errors) and Julia Tannheimer (1) landed in fourth and fifth place.

“I made life difficult for myself. The final round was really tough,” Preuß told ARD. “But it paid off and now I’m really happy.”

This feeling also applied to her colleague Voigt, who hit all 20 targets. After finishing 37th in the sprint, the Thuringian wanted to prove that she could do better. “I don’t think I let myself get rattled at all today,” said Voigt. She explained that it was easier for her on the cross-country ski trail than the day before.

Riethmüller “really satisfied”

Among the men, Danilo Riethmüller in particular had a good laugh. As unsatisfactory as the new World Cup season began for the 25-year-old, he ended the competition in Finland in a reconciled manner. In the mass start he was able to celebrate his best career result by finishing fourth. Riethmüller confirmed that he was “really satisfied” with that.

From his point of view, the year began with a penalty lap in the mixed relay, which meant that the DSV quartet was passed through. In the 15-kilometer race at the end, Riethmüller impressed with three impeccable shooting performances. Only in the last standing position did he miss a target and therefore missed the podium by 6.2 seconds.

“Of course it would have been even nicer to fight for the podium in the sprint. But I noticed right from the start that I wasn’t on track so well today. In terms of feeling, I was missing a bit of punch,” said Riethmüller.

He might have been able to endanger the winner Eric Perrot with 20 hits, but due to the extra round and the lack of strength, Riethmüller had to let go of the Frenchman as well as his compatriot Quentin Fillon Maillet and Sturla Holm Laegreid from Norway.

On the final climb in what was only his third mass start, Riethmüller was hopeful that his competitors would “have mercy on me,” he said. “But they didn’t have that. They jumped on, and then I thought: Come on, drive the ship safely into the harbor – and then it’ll be fine.”

Kühn crash in the last corner

Things didn’t go quite so well for the other DSV starters. Justus Strelow ended up in eleventh place as the second best German. After the first shooting session, the Saxon was still on course, but then he missed three times.

The sprint third Philipp Nawrath (5/17th), Johannes Kühn (6/22nd) and Philipp Horn (6/25th) played no role in the fight for the top ten positions due to too many penalties. Kühn was even involved in a collision in the last corner and crashed. However, the crash with the Norwegian Johannes Dale-Skjevdal was not decisive.