World Cup dress rehearsal in Italy: Biathlon women’s relay without Preuß in Antholz only eighth

The German women’s relay team, which was severely weakened, clearly missed its third World Cup victory in a row at the Biathlon World Cup in Antholz. At the dress rehearsal for the World Championships, Marlene Fichtner, Sophia Schneider, Julia Kink and Johanna Puff only made it to eighth place in Italy, a long way behind. After ten spare rounds, the quartet finished 3:24.7 minutes behind winner Sweden. Norway secured second place ahead of France.

After the short-term failures of Stefanie Scherer, Selina Grotian and the exhausted overall World Cup leader Franziska Preuß, an inexperienced team took part. At the home World Cup in Oberhof and Ruhpolding this month there were two victories with other teams, but that was impossible in South Tyrol without the best. Sports director Felix Bitterling had taken any pressure off the team before the start; the main aim was to gain experience at the highest level.

From the first round, Germany was lagging behind. In 15th place, Fichtner handed over to Schneider, who worked her way up to ninth place. Kink held the position on her 21st birthday, Puff still managed to move up one place in the end.

Voigt has to worry about taking part in the World Cup

Vanessa Voigt and Julia Tannheimer, who were actually placed in the relay, were not there in Antholz due to exhaustion and illness. For Voigt from Thuringia, participation in the World Cup in Lenzerheide, Switzerland (February 12th to 23rd) is still at risk. “We’ll have to see how things develop with Vanessa. It could be a bit tight,” said team doctor Jan Wüstenfeld on ZDF.