Biathlon World Cup: “I am incredible”: Biathlete Horn becomes a World Cup seventh

The German biathlon men are waiting for the first medal even after the third individual race of the World Cup in Lenzerheide. In the heavy single over 20 kilometers, Philipp Horn, as the seventh, delivered his best World Cup result so far and thus ensured the longed-for upward trend in the team of protégés of national coach Uros Velepec.

“Of course you dream of the medals, but I am not dissatisfied with seventh place,” said Horn, which was burdened with two mistakes, who experienced a roller coaster of feelings in the canton of Graubünden. With a lesser minute less, it would have been enough for bronze, because unlike expected, errors were shot in good conditions – only two athletes remained flawless.

“Now, if I think about it, it annoys me incredible because it would have been absolutely in there,” said the Thuringian to the possible jump to the podium: “Both the lying error and the standing error were completely unnecessary. I have to accept that. “

Great disappointment for record world champions

Johannes Kühn also set two shots next to it – when he first used his first World Cup in the Swiss Alps, he also delivered a solid performance as twelfth. After the debacle in the sprint and in the persecution, it was a sign of life for the DSV ski hunters. Rank 17 of Horn in the chasing race was the best World Cup placement until then.

The Frenchman Eric Perrot became world champion, who, after a mistake, referred the Italian Tommaso Giacomel (1 error/+ 52.4 seconds) to the silver rank. Bronze secured the Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet (3 errors/+ 1: 59.5 minutes).

Defending champion and record world champion Johannes Thingnes Bö shot down five times after his sovereign victories in sprint and persecution and, like the other Norwegians than 20, had nothing to do with the title fight.

The last German medal in the biathlon classic, Benedikt Doll, who has now resigned, won bronze in Nove Mesto a year ago. The last German individual world champion is Arnd Peiffer, who won in Östersund Gold in 2019.

Especially for Horn it was finally a race with which he could be satisfied. After his bad sprint, in which he had only become 44th, the Thuringian had struggled with his shooting performance. “I hate that in biathlon because it is just so much more disappointment than beautiful feelings,” said the 30-year-old.

After that he had “a little bit full”, now his mood was better: “Biathlon is my passion, I really enjoyed. I just wanted to have fun – with the backdrop and in the weather for Germany at a World Cup , is damn cool. “

So far, Kühn was only a World Cup tourist, had to watch in the mixed relay, in the sprint and thus also the persecution. “The first mistake was brutally far away, that annoys me. I would have needed at least one more mistake for the front. I prepared myself as well as possible and cut everything out. It worked out well at the beginning, at the end medium,” said the 33- Year old.

WM debutant Danilo Riethmüller (25/3 errors) made his best World Cup result so far after he had previously only ran to places 40. David Zobel (2 errors), who arrived at short notice and replaced the weakening Philipp Nawrath, finished 28th.

Prussia and Strelow reach for the next medal

The next chance of precious metal is already on Thursday (4:05 p.m./ARD and Eurosport). Persecution world champion Franziska Preuß competes together with the one -tone Justus Strelow. Preuss (30) and Strelow (28) were part of the mixed relay at the start of the World Cup, which had won bronze during the previous week. In addition to gold in the hunting race, Preuss also won silver in the sprint. It should be the first German biathlete in all possible seven World Cup races.