Dhe German biathlon relay for women finished second at the World Cup dress rehearsal in Antholz, Italy. One week after the home win in Oberhof, Vanessa Hinz, Janina Hettich, Denise Herrmann and Franziska Preuß only had to admit defeat to Russia in the last World Cup before the title fights. France came third over the 4×6 kilometers on Sunday in the Südtirol-Arena, ahead of Italy. “We have now offered a really good team performance in the last few seasons,” said Denise Herrmann on ZDF and looked optimistically to the World Cup next month: “I hope that we will take the momentum with us to Pokljuka.”
The German quartet was very accurate at the shooting range and only needed six spare rounds. Nevertheless, the German women were eleven seconds behind the Russians, who had nine reserve cartridges and needed 1: 07: 32.4 hours for the 24 kilometers. 27 days before the women’s World Cup relay on February 20 in Pokljuka, Slovenia, the biathletes showed that they belong to the circle of favorites after finishing third in the fourth relay race.
Problems with Preuss
With a gap of 16.5 seconds, the 28-year-old Vanessa Hinz, who needed a reserve cartridge, handed over in second place behind Italy. Janina Hettich also needed a spare, but because the competition failed, the 24-year-old from the Black Forest took the lead. Former world champion Denise Herrmann, who is in third place, needed a total of three spare rounds. The 32-year-old former cross-country skier was great on the trail and was 3.8 seconds ahead at the last change.
In the penultimate shooting, Franziska Preuss and the Russian Uljana Kaischewa were tied, both final runners made no mistakes and separated from the rest of the field. At the last shooting, the 26-year-old Preuss had problems, but got away with a spare. “When I got up I noticed that my feet were shaking stupidly,” said Preuss, who needed 49.2 seconds to shoot. The Russian needed two reserve cartridges, but cleared the panes in 40.3 seconds – that was the key to victory.
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