Biathlon World Cup: Important step, fairytale start: Preuss and Bös cheer

Franziska Preuß briefly checked the list of results and then accepted the first congratulations from her teammates. Germany’s best biathlete still had to tremble huge for a few minutes. Only thanks to a mini advantage of just 0.2 seconds on Lou JeanMonnot, Preuss with the victory in the sprint of Oslo took an important step towards one of the greatest successes of their career: the targeted triumph in the overall World Cup.

In two outstanding races, Preuß, who is supported by the majority of her family, is supported by the majority of her family on the legendary Osloer Holmenkollen, 35 points in front of JeanMonnot. The French woman lacked a blink of an eye to reduce the gap to Prussia and increase the pressure.

“I went with the Mindset with which I also went to the World Cup: top or flop,” said persecution gold medalist Prusser, who has already secured the small crystal ball of the discipline rating. “I am already mega relieved that things have stuck. We had really good material today, you can tell in the meters that something is going.”

At the same time, the two big competitors will start persecution on Saturday (3:50 p.m./Eurosport and ARD). However, a decision will probably only be made in the mass start on Sunday. “I can’t wait to compete against her in the persecution,” said JeanMonnot, who had managed to continuously reduce the gap on the final round and thus forced a heartbeat final – with the happier end for Prussia.

The last World Cup weekend of his career for biathlon star Johannes Thingnes Bö could hardly have started any more fairytale. In his Norwegian homeland, the 31-year-old won the sprint over ten kilometers and won the discipline rating with the 91st success of his career.

The Norwegian gala in front of a domestic audience completed the also flawless Sturla Holm Laegreid and Johannes Dale-Skjevdal (1 shooting error) in the ranks two and three. The first non-norwegian was Tommaso Giacomel from Italy in sixth place.

In the overall ranking, Bö is still 89 points behind Laegreid. Bös chance of winning the large crystal ball for the sixth time is low.

Strelow falls to the final round

As the best DSV ski hunter, the impeccable valley Justus Strelow at the shooting range ended up in eighth place after a fall on the final round with a deficit of 1: 14.4 minutes. The fall was “annoying” so Strelow. “That costs five to ten seconds. But in the end it is still a good result.”

The new national coach Tobias Reiter also saw it that way. “Justus in the top ten is always good, and we always want to be there,” said the successor to the Uros Velepec, who resigned after the World Cup.