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After his stroke of genius, Arnd Peiffer fell completely exhausted into the snow of Pokljuka, but only a little later he clenched his fist, beaming with joy.

With silver in the biathlon classic over 20 kilometers, the 33-year-old not only won his 17th World Cup medal, but also saved the previously weak German men from the next big disappointment.

“I just wanted to do a good race for myself, so I didn't care about the placement at first.

But I'm really happy that it's now a medal, ”said the sprint Olympic champion from Pyeongchang after showing a perfect shooting performance with 20 hits and thus laying the foundation for the first medal for national coach Mark Kirchner's protégés at the World Championships in Slovenia would have.

Peiffer was only 16.9 seconds short of his second individual gold medal on Wednesday after 2019. The Norwegian Sturla Holm Laegreid, who was also faultless, secured victory.

Bronze went to his team colleague Johannes Dale.

Sturla Holm Laegreid wins the gold medal over 20 kilometers

Source: AP / Darko Bandic

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How great the pressure was on the German team was shown by the emotional reaction of Kirchner, who clenched his fist in euphoria after Peiffer's 20th goal.

A historic World Cup debacle had previously threatened.

Peiffer prevents debacles

If things had continued as before in the sprint and in the pursuit, the German men's team could have ended up without a medal for the first time since 1969.

But the Harzer saved his team from that.

The medal gives Peiffer & Co. the longed-for self-confidence for the relay on Saturday and the final mass start on the following day.

The bare numbers after the sprint and pursuit were sobering: 20, 31, 36, 41, 39, 45, 66. It has never been so bad for the German ski hunters.

At the peak of the season, of all things, the Germans did not get both partial performances together: While the worst sprint in history and also in the hunting race, especially at the shooting range, sometimes hair-raising results were delivered, in the pursuer at least on the trail, Doll was second fastest, Peiffer sixth and Kühn ninth convince.

Strong team performance by the Germans

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But Peiffer and his colleagues pressed the reset button, as they had hoped, and set everything to zero again - especially mentally.

And now rehabilitated themselves with a complete team performance in the difficult individual race: Benedikt Doll in eighth and Roman Rees in tenth also achieved strong results.

Peiffer shot clean

Source: REUTERS

“Top ten results are nice, but when you're rewarded with a medal, it's all the better.

I'm really happy for Arnd.

Our technicians did an outstanding job today too, ”said Doll.

One had guessed in advance on Peiffer.

"I bet that Arnd will come in second and have a good individual competition," said retired France star Martin Fourcade - and he was right.

“It's nice that there are self-fulfilling prophecies in a positive sense too,” said Peiffer.