Party crasher Johannes Kühn spoiled the Norwegians’ next triple triumph and made an exclamation mark by coming third in the individual in the fog race in Antholz. In conditions that were not the same for all ski hunters and were sometimes difficult, the 32-year-old only missed two of his 20 shots on Thursday and celebrated his best result of the season. “It was great today. But it’s still not my favorite,” said Kühn with a smile after the fifth World Cup podium of his career. In total, national coach Uros Velepec’s team now has eight podium places.
Clouds of fog had repeatedly drifted into the 2026 Olympic Stadium, but Norway’s superstar Johannes Thingnes Bö, who secured victory in the oldest biathlon race three weeks before the start of the World Cup, was unimpressed. The overall World Cup leader remained error-free in his 72nd World Cup success and came out on top with 1:36.1 minutes ahead of his brother Tarjei (two errors). Kühn was 1:44.0 minutes behind and, thanks to the eighth-best running time, prevented the dominant Scandinavians from achieving their sixth triple success this winter. After 15 kilometers, the classic was shortened by five kilometers for reasons of stress, the Bavarian crossed the finish line 3.3 seconds ahead of Johannes Dale-Skjevdal.
Successful debut from Riethmüller
“If he scores zero, you can’t beat Johannes anyway. But I tried to do my thing,” Kühn reported on ARD. He remained clean until the fourth shooting. “After four shots I started shaking like hell, the last one was miles away,” said Kühn. With one less mistake he would have finished second.
While veteran Benedikt Doll, who also recently had poor shooting results in Ruhpolding, disappointed with 44th place after six missed shots, Danilo Riethmüller made a great World Cup debut. The 24-year-old was still on his way to training in Ruhpolding that morning when the call came at 8 a.m. asking him to step in for Philipp Horn, who was ill. He only arrived at the stadium at 12.40 p.m. because he had previously been stuck in a traffic jam in Antholz for 30 minutes. But that didn’t bother him: Riethmüller only made one mistake and broke the association’s internal World Cup standard in a strong seventh place.
“I’m a bit at a loss for words. I’ve never been here before, I have to admit there was a bit of excitement. Maybe I took on too much in the first round. But then I was able to concentrate well,” said Riethmüller. He blocked out the noise from the thousands of fans, which was unusual for him, thanks to earplugs. He had switched off his cell phone as a precaution and looked at the congratulations later: “First I have to realize what happened today.” His next chance for a great result is on Sunday in the mass start, for which he qualified.
There was disillusionment, especially with the two-time sprint winner Doll. “Somehow the lightness is not there at all. I have to distance myself from the weapon and stay calm,” said the 33-year-old.
Julia Basic, Ruhpolding Published/Updated: Recommendations: 7 Achim Dreis, Kirchberg Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Published/Updated:
Opening winner Roman Rees was able to celebrate tenth place after recent mixed results. The opening runner-up, Justus Strelow (three errors), came 30th, Philipp Nawrath, who had already won one win and two more podium places, had to settle for 41st place after five errors.