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For Franziska Preuß, standing shooting was her downfall

Photo: Alex Grimm / Getty Images

The Biathlon World Championships in Nové Mesto, Czech Republic started with a bit of disappointment for the German team. In the mixed relay, the German quartet only finished fifth despite being in the lead at halftime. Gold went to France ahead of top favorite Norway (+45.2 seconds) in silver, while Sweden took bronze (+1:01.7).

Justus Strelow and Philipp Nawrath ensured that the German mixed relay team had an outstanding starting position: fast shooter Strelow made no mistakes both lying and standing at the shooting range and put the competition under pressure. At the first change, Germany was only slightly behind the leading French.

Nawrath then showed an outstanding running performance and kept his nerve in the standing shooting despite three spare rounds. While Norway, with World Cup dominator Johannes Thingnes Bø in the chasing field, struggled with their own shooting errors and was unable to take advantage of Nawrath's small insecurities, the German relay left France and Quentin Fillon-Maillet behind on the cross-country ski trail this time.

Preuss makes a mistake in standing shooting

The starting position for Franziska Preuß was correspondingly promising - that only changed in the standing shooting: Preuß only hit four of the five targets with eight shots, and Germany had to go to the penalty hour. Norway's Elise Knotten shot perfectly and took the lead, while Germany slipped to fifth place, almost 30 seconds behind.

By the last change, this gap had grown to 37.4 seconds as France's Justine Braisaz-Bouchet took the lead with an outstanding final lap. Germany's final runner Vanessa Voigt, a strong shooter, was no longer able to close the gap on athletes like Julia Simon, Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and Elvira Öberg.

“Somehow the lactate got into me,” said Preuß later on the ARD microphone. »I was already extremely tense when I got to the shooting range. My thighs then just shook. I just feel really bad for the other three.”

The next medal chances come in the sprint races: On Friday the women start over 7.5 kilometers, on Saturday the men over 10 kilometers (5.20 p.m. each).

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