Biathlon: Germany in good form at Idre Fjäll
What if Germany’s great men’s biathlon team was back? Having struggled in recent seasons, the Germans are certainly showing their collective strength this weekend in the sprints of the Swedish opening races in Idre Fjäll (Sweden).
If this didn’t allow the Mannschaft to win the first race on Saturday, it paid off at midday on Sunday. There were no fewer than seven of them in the top eleven and they occupied all three places on the podium.
Victory went to Lucas Fratzscher (9/10), who was far from the best on the previous day, with a margin of 1 sec 7 over David Zobel (8/10). At 22 sec 4, Johannes Kuehn (8/10) completed the podium, ahead of Martin Ponsiluoma (6/10) by a few seconds.
Simon Kaiser (8/10) and Danilo Riethmueller (7/10) followed, while Victor Berglund (9/10), Sebastian Samuelsson (6/10), with four standing errors, Viktor Brandt (7/10), Justus Strelow (8/10) and Philipp Nawrath (8/10) completed the top 11.
Further back, we find Jesper Nelin (8/10) in fourteenth place, Emil Nykvist (10/10) in seventeenth, Philipp Horn (6/10) in twentieth, Vitalii Mandzyn (6/10) in twenty-first, Malte Stefansson (6/10) in twenty-second, Roman Rees (6/10) in twenty-fifth, Leonhard Pfund (6/10) in thirtieth and Lukas Hofer (6/10) in thirty-sixth.
Full results
Result_Men_Sprint_Official_Sunday- Two sprints without penalty laps: the full programme for the Swedish opening races at Idre Fjäll
- The Swedish national team begins its final preparation camp on the snow of Idre Fjäll
- Sprint test in Idre Fjäll: Anna Magnusson and Martin Ponsiluoma win with 10/10
- Germany goes on a two-week training camp in Idre Fjäll… except for Franziska Preuss, who will finish her preparation in Obertilliach
- The Italian stars head for Scandinavia: Lisa Vittozzi and Lukas Hofer go to Idre Fjäll and then Östersund, while Tommaso Giacomel and Dorothea Wierer go to Geilo.
- Change of programme at Idre Fjäll due to lack of snow
- Idre Fjäll: no Swedish opening races for Anna-Karin Heijdenberg and Johanna Skottheim, who are ill
- Swedish opening races at Idre Fjäll: Hanna Oeberg wins a high-level sprint ahead of Elvira Oeberg and Linn Gestblom, Lisa Vittozzi fourth
- Idre Fjäll: Sebastian Samuelsson crushes the men’s sprint, Germany’s Philipp Horn and Simon Kaiser on the podium
- Idre Fjäll sprint: Elvira Oeberg’s turn to impress in the Swedish opening races, Lisa Vittozzi still fourth
