Denise Herrmann-Wick's anger at her last missed shot quickly disappeared.
“It was solid but not good enough for the podium.
Nevertheless, I'm satisfied with the start," said the Olympic champion after sixth place in the biathlon individual in Kontiolahti, Finland.
The thought of her gold coup in Beijing in February gave her a shot of extra motivation before the first race, but the fast Saxon with her last cartridge and a total of two penalty minutes prevented her from making the World Cup podium.
"I waited too long, it was annoying because it shoots extremely well," said the 32-year-old, who is traveling with a double name after marrying ex-cross-country skier Thomas Wick, on ARD.
The third-best runtime was again a pointer in the direction of the competition.
The last bit is still missing to fully exhaust oneself.
"Other than that I feel stable, even when shooting," said the former world champion, who is using a new rifle stock this season.
The big goal this winter is anyway the home world championships in February in Oberhof.
Vanessa Voigt remained flawless as one of only three female skiers. On Wednesday she narrowly missed her second World Cup podium of her career with a strong fourth place.
In the end, the 25-year-old was 20.8 seconds behind third-placed Italian Lisa Vittozzi (1 penalty).
Victory went to Hanna Öberg of Sweden, who, despite a penalty, relegated the clean-shooting Norwegian Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold to second place by 36.5 seconds.
Herrmann-Wick was 1:31.4 minutes behind the winner.
“With my shooting time, only the flower pot was in it today.
Nevertheless, this is a good performance at the start of the season,” said Voigt, who had already finished fourth at the Olympics in Beijing, just missing the podium.
Voigt is a very reliable shooter, but overall still too slow compared to the absolute top.
This time it was only the 80th shooting time, she lost a minute to the fastest.
And yet the performance gives her confidence for the season.
“The pressure was high after last year.
I've arrived at the top of the world, it's not so easy to confirm that," said the Thuringian.
In the previous season she had completed an entire winter in the World Cup for the first time, immediately impressed with her good performances and won Olympic bronze in the relay.
Now she immediately put it back on.
Sophia Schneider managed half the World Cup standard as a strong eleventh.
"I can't really believe it.
The placement wasn't that important to me, it was a cool race," said Schneider, who had secured her starting place in the internal qualifying races.
Juliane Frühwirt as 23rd and Anna Weidel as 26th also scored World Cup points.
Not there was Franziska Preuss, who didn't feel 100 percent fit and should start in the sprint on Saturday.
In the two Norwegian stars Tiril Eckhoff and Marte Olsbu Röiseland two top stars of the scene were missing for health reasons.
Röiseland, wife of the new German women's assistant coach Sverre Olsbu Röiseland, is said to be back soon, Eckhoff is pausing until further notice.
The relay races for men (11:00 a.m./ARD and Eurosport) and women (1:35 p.m.) continue on Thursday, before a rest day follows on Friday.
At the weekend, the sprints (Saturday) and pursuers (Sunday) are on the agenda.