While the Norwegian Vetle Sjaastad Christansen won his fifth individual victory of his career at the World Cup sprint in Ruhpolding, the German biathletes missed the podium.
Christiansen was one of the few athletes to get through on Saturday (January 13th, 2024) without any mistakes and was also running strong as usual. The Italian Tommaso Giacomel surprisingly landed behind him (1 error/+16.9 seconds), Tarjei Bö completed the podium (0/+20.1).
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Mixed DSV result
The German biathletes awarded the podium at the shooting range. The best DSV athlete was Justus Strelow, who made it into the top 10 in sixth place with one mistake and even finished the race ahead of the Norwegian leader in the overall World Cup, Johannes Thingnes Bö (1/+44). Philipp Horn also had a good race and was rewarded with eleventh place (2/+49.2).
Philipp Nawrath (2 errors) starts the race in 14th place in the pursuit on Sunday (+54.2), Johannes Kühn (1) starts right behind him. Benedikt Doll came 19th with 2 errors and is already over a minute behind. Roman Rees had to accept three missed shots and came 40th (+1:48.5 minutes).
Strelow was at the forefront for a long time
As in the last few days, the conditions in Ruhpolding were perfect. It was clear early on that victory would only come through faultless shooting. Strelow was at the front until the last shooting, but then made the crucial mistake in the standing position. On the last lap he lost his strength and was no longer able to attack the podium. Horn confirmed his improving form from last week and managed to finish in the top 15 despite two penalties after standing.
Too many mistakes at the shooting range
Philipp Nawrath was unlucky, as he had three misfires in the first shooting. Nevertheless, it was zero for him. There were no misfires in the standing position, but this time there was a lack of precision – two penalty laps. This meant that the top 10 placement was also out of reach. The same applied to Kühn and Doll. While Kühn made a mistake once in the standing position, Doll had to go into the penalty loop twice, which meant that his chances of his third sprint win this season were lost early on.
Johannes Kühn was the first German starter to confirm his good form over the last few weeks and was able to hope for a top placing after a faultless first prone stage. But while standing, he made the decisive miss and lost sight of the podium. Rees was also unable to reach his potential both at the shooting range and on the cross-country ski trail.