Biathlon: a perfect race for the Czechs
The biathlon world championships in Lenzerheide (Switzerland) kicked off on Wednesday with the mixed relay. Behind an imperious French team, the Czech Republic team – made up of Jessica Jislova, Tereza Vobornikova, Vitezslav Hornig and Michal Krcmar – took second place after a perfect race.
The result was all the more surprising given that the band was without frontwoman Marketa Davidova, who is nursing a herniated disc.
Jessica Jislova got things off to a perfect start, taking over in fourth place just over 16 seconds behind Julian Simon. All this despite spring-like conditions that didn’t suit her perfectly: “I don’t like this heat, so I tried to ski more tactically. Thanks to that, I had the strength to attack on the last lap and catch up with the Pole. I had very good skis,” she told at iDNES.cz.
“My legs were shaking a lot”: Vitezslav Hornig on his standing shot
Behind her, it was the turn of Tereza Vobornikova. Faced with Franziska Preuss and Dorothea Wierer, she put in a perfect standing shot to take second place. At the end of an ultra-fast final lap,she handed over the baton to Italy in third place. “I’m really surprised that she [Dorothea Wierer, editor’s note] was so fast in the last lap, I was just trying to keep in touch,” said the Czech biathlete.
The first of the boys to take the plunge was Vitezslav Hornig, who has made great progress this season. Flanked by Germany’s Philipp Nawrath and Italy’s Lukas Hofer, he put in a good relay… despite a scare on the standing shot where he used his three pick balls to avoid the penalty turn.
“It must have been a combination of stress and the slowness of the track, my legs were shaking a lot”, he confided. Despite this slight setback, he handed over the relay in third place, battling it out for silver with Italy and Germany.
“I shouted at him that he should die out there”: Ondrej Moravec to Michal Krcmar on the final lap
So it was Michal Krcmar’s turn to wrap up the Czech team’s work. The 2020 world bronze medallist was up against Justus Strelow and Tommaso Giacomel, but also had to contend with the return of Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe and Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson.
Just as the German managed to fill up at lightning speed on his feet, Michal Krcmar was held up on the firing point by a mistake on his fourth shot. It was a mistake he was unable to correct with his first shot. “It annoyed me,” he admitted later.
The second pick was the right one, but Johannes Thingnes Boe and Sebastian Samuelsson left the shooting range just 9 seconds behind the Czech. “It was a bit stressful for me,” admitted Michal Krcmar.
It was then that the 34-year-old biathlete put in a crazy last lap, taking over 20 seconds off the German and holding off the Scandinavian duo. “The first half of the course is all uphill and I knew that if I kept going, they [Johannes Thingnes Boe and Sebastian Samuelsson, editor’s note] wouldn’t catch me. We all had very good skis in the team,” he says.
On the final climb, spurred on by the encouragement of his trainer Ondrej Moravec – “I shouted at him that he should die there” – he caught up with Justus Strelow and flew away to silver.
A medal that kicks off the World Championships perfectly for the Czech Republic, whose last world medal came in 2021 when Marketa Davidova won the individual title in Pokljuka (Slovenia).
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