World Cup in Östersund - German biathletes third in relay - Kühn penalized
Even without their successful duo Roman Rees and Justus Strelow, the German biathletes continued their winning streak and finished third in the first relay race of the new World Cup season.
Although the final skier Johannes Kühn lost second place due to a penalty, the Bavarian, David Zobel, Philipp Nawrath and Benedikt Doll celebrated another top result in the end. It was the German team's sixth podium finish in the sixth race at the first stop of the season - the last time they did so well was eight years ago at the start of the 2015/2016 season.
"Our substitutes weren't really substitutes, they can just as well be in the mix. It was nice to finish third, if you look at the reloads, that was anything but a brilliant performance. But our skiing was pretty good," Doll said on ZDF.
In icy cold Östersund with minus nine degrees Celsius, the DSV quartet still had 16 reloads and had to leave the place behind the superior winning Norwegians to world champion France. After 4 x 7.5 kilometers, the Germans were 50.5 seconds behind the leaders and 29.9 seconds behind the French.
"Symptoms of infection" for Rees and Strelow
Four days after his surprising individual victory, Rees (30) was missing from the team, as was Strelow (26), who had finished second over 20 kilometers. "Justus and Roman have developed symptoms of infection, which we are currently treating intensively," said team doctor Jan Wüstenfeld. After being nominated the day before, a relay team entry was no longer an option "so as not to jeopardize the following competitions". The next race for the men is the sprint on Saturday. In this competition, Rees would compete in the yellow jersey for the first time in his career if he is fit again in time.
Zobel, who replaced Strelow in the team, started with three reloads, but did well on his perfectly prepared skis and finished sixth, 15.3 seconds behind the leaders, thanks to the best running time of the starting skiers. "I'll let Justus show me the prone shooting again, unfortunately that was nothing. But the running was really good," said the 27-year-old.
Doll has to let Norway's superstar go
Nawrath (30) quickly worked his way forward and with only one extra round in each of the two shooting stages as well as a strong performance on the run, he brought the DSV team into second place, almost on a par with the Norwegians. Experienced Doll (33) then had to leave Norway's superstar Johannes Thingnes Bö behind by 38.5 seconds, because he just managed to avoid the penalty loop in the standing stage. Kühn (32), who replaced Rees as the final skier, then showed nerves in the standing stage as he often does, but secured a podium finish. "The final runner-up is not exactly my best discipline. Standing was difficult and then at some point I ran out of steam," said Kühn.
The World Cup in central Sweden continues on Friday (14:45/ZDF and Eurosport) with the women's sprint. The team led by Franziska Preuß finished third in the relay on Wednesday.
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Source: www.stern.de
