Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof: More flops than tops: only Grotian and Strelow are celebrating

First Selina Grotian and Justus Strelow ensured the celebrated first podium finish in the otherwise mixed home World Cup. Then, after coming third in the single mixed relay, they celebrated exuberantly in the sunshine of Oberhof with the biathlon fans. “That makes it more forgiving at the end and you take the positives with you on the last day. That was just a great day,” said super shooter Strelow.

However, her podium finish hid the sobering individual results, especially for the men, and in the mixed relay, after leading for a while, two penalties from youngster Julia Tannheimer and one from Franziska Preuß only made it to fifth place. “That wasn’t my week,” said Preuss.

Strelow (28), however, only needed an extra cartridge for Finland’s premiere victory in the single mixed relay. If Grotian hadn’t needed all three additional shots three out of four times, it would have been enough. “I could only have dreamed of a podium today,” said the 20-year-old, who was still satisfied.

Much undertaken, little achieved

That wasn’t everyone, because there was no podium place in the individual races, the previously outstanding Franziska Preuß lost almost 100 points of her lead in the overall World Cup and, above all, the men made a number of mistakes at the shooting range. “We hoped for more. Maybe we planned too much at home,” said Philipp Nawrath, who, like Riethmüller, came through well in the mixed relay. Previously, he and his colleagues’ nerves had too often failed to cooperate.

Only Grotian (20) was able to convince with fifth and tenth places. Before her failed relay race, this also applied to Tannheimer with individual places ninth and twelfth. Preuß, who had been so strong so far, had to overcome two setbacks (20th and 28th) and also made mistakes in the relay. The still ailing Thuringian Vanessa Voigt (Sprint 68th) couldn’t really intervene and even had to take a break.

Home advantage turns out to be a disadvantage

The home advantage in front of tens of thousands of fans at the Rennsteig in the Thuringian Forest proved to be more of a burden than an incentive, especially for national coach Uros Velepec’s protégés. Sports director Felix Bitterling did not see a “general shooting problem”, but rather the problem was “between the ears”. But the world elite does not forgive mistakes.

After a total of 17 misses in the sprint with Strelow as the best in 18th place, there were 25 mistakes in the hunt race and Nawrath in 16th place. Although he was the second fastest on the trail, he missed four times. Apart from Strelow, who only missed once in both individual races but couldn’t quite keep up with his running, his teammates were far from world class – at least with the rifle.

National coach remains relaxed

“Everyone feels pressure somewhere and wants to do particularly well. But I’ve never heard a footballer complain about pressure at a home game,” said Bitterling. Things should go better next week at the second home World Cup. “The boys can all shoot well and they will show that again in Ruhpolding,” said Strelow.

National coach Velepec did not want to create a sense of crisis. “I don’t have any major worries about the World Cup. Our goal is to be in top form there,” said the Slovenian. In Le Grand-Bornand before Christmas his team was still top in terms of shooting percentage, but in Oberhof the focus was lost.

In addition, Strelow, Riethmüller, second in the mass start in France, and Johannes Kühn came out of illness. “We have to focus more and work harder. And show it when it counts,” said Velepec and promised for Ruhpolding: “We’ll attack again.”

Grotian makes peace with Oberhof

Meanwhile, Grotian, who just celebrated her first World Cup victory in France, confirmed her potential. She almost made it back onto the podium in the pursuit, just seven seconds short of third place. “I’m more than happy,” she said of her overall conclusion after things didn’t go well on the routes in Thuringia last year and she was briefly kicked out of the World Cup team.