World Cup in Lenzerheide: German male relay wins bronze – biathletes fifth

Philipp Horn briefly spread his arms and fell completely flat into the snow after a brief jubilation. With a relay bronze, the German biathletes broadcast the hoped-for sign of life for the final runner Horn, who was fighting up to the last meter, on the penultimate day of the World Cup in Lenzerheide. The men’s first World Cup medal with the season after five years and many disappointments also followed on sometimes frighteningly weak individual competitions in Switzerland. The women around Franziska Preuß started with gold ambitions, on the other hand, went empty for the first time since 2019 and remained surprisingly without precious metal.

Horn’s painful final round

“That was the hardest round that I ever had. I gave everything and much more,” said Horn. The 30-year-old Thuringian brought the quartet, which also included Philipp Nawrath, Danilo Riethmüller and Johannes Kühn, with a perfect standing shooting in the final with the Sweden Sebastian Samuelsson the longed-for medal. “Oh, you shit, it was horny,” thought Horn when he went to the last round, who then demanded everything: “I thought, I couldn’t do it anymore. I thought the lights went out, I had such pain . “

In the end, after 4 x 7.5 kilometers, Germany only had to give up the superior Norwegian team 1: 42.6 minutes behind and France. In 2015 in the Finnish of the Finnish, there was the last relay title for the men so far. Many setbacks followed in the following years, and since Silver 2020 in Antholz, the team had been waiting for the podium.

Shortly after the finish line, Kühn then broke out in tears as well as coach Jens Filbrich. For Kühn it was the first World Cup medal at the age of 33, and Riethmüller also celebrated its premiere on the podium of a World Cup. In Lenzerheide it was already the fifth precious metal for the team around medal collector Franziska Preuss.

The Bavarian had little reason to be happy on the penultimate World Cup day. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and yes, today was not our day,” said Preuss: “But yes, we already had nice moments with the season this year.” After two season victories, the ambitions were different from fifth place.

Sophia Schneider, Selina Grotian, Julia Tannheimer and Prussia were only started as favorites at the superior triumph of France, who even found 18th place at the beginning. Schneider’s bitter penalty round and a total of ten followers were too much to make it forward.

“Of course we are not satisfied with the result,” said women’s national coach Kristian Mehringer. In the end, the DSV quartet was 1: 58.4 minutes behind after 4 x 6 kilometers. Silver in front of 17,000 spectators in the Roland Arena went to Norway, bronze got the Swedes.

Schneider far behind early

In 2017 in Hochfilzen, Austria there was the last season gold for women. Since then, the team had only stayed in 2019 in the Swedish Östersund without a medal (4th place).

In the case of clear plus degrees and an ever softening route, the tailor used in the second-class IBU Cup this season often got a bad start. After a total of four releases and a round of penalty after standing shooting, the 27-year-old’s gap to the leading French women was already 1: 35.1 minutes in the change of 16.

Prussia also fails at the shooting range

“I didn’t get the weapon calmly. I didn’t get the stress off the track while shooting. I’m very sorry,” said Schneider. Because the 20-year-old Grotian did not get through without errors, Youngster Tannheimer went to her first World Cup season than 13. The 19-year-old sent persecution world champion Preuss to the crossbar. Two relapse in standing shooting prevented the late jump onto the podium. “Sometimes a shot decides,” said Preuss, who can win her fifth World Cup medal at the start of the World Cup on Sunday.