Saturday, January 08, 2022
Update
An overview of winter sports
German ski stars fall, relays fail
Today’s winter sports day is all about runners and all kinds of skis. In the biathlon, two German relays went empty-handed, the alpine skiers got it much worse: one fall ended mildly, one with a serious injury. The German skate athletes collect victories and podium places.
Ski racer Marco Odermatt is still in top form around four weeks before the Olympics. The Swiss won the home giant slalom in Adelboden for the first time, 0.48 seconds ahead of Manuel Feller from Austria. Third place went to French overall World Cup winner Alexis Pinturault (+0.54). For Odermatt, it was the fourth success in the fifth giant slalom this winter.
Germany’s hope Alexander Schmid, who last raced on the podium for the first time in Alta Badia, had to fight as usual at the legendary Chuenisbärgli. After finishing ninth in the first run, the Allgäu crashed in the second run and was eliminated. The best German was Julian Rauchfuss in 21st place. Fabian Gratz missed the final. On Sunday there is still a slalom on the program for the men in Adelboden. Then Linus Straßer finally wants to meet the standard for the Winter Games in Beijing.
Previously, Paulina Schlosser fell badly at the Giant Slalom World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. The 20-year-old technician slipped away when Sweden’s Sara Hector won in the first run and was thrown over the slopes. As the German Ski Association announced on Saturday, she suffered a fractured lower leg. For Hector, after the triumph of Courchevel, it was the second success in giant slalom this Olympic winter. French Tessa Worley came in second, 0.96 seconds behind, followed by last year’s winner Marta Bassino from Italy (+1.32). Emma Aicher clearly missed the top 30 as the second German starter on Podkoren.
Biathlon relays get nothing
The German biathlon mixed relay took sixth place at the Olympic dress rehearsal in Oberhof. The quartet with Roman Rees, Benedikt Doll, Vanessa Voigt and Vanessa Hinz made six spare rounds at the home World Cup in Thuringia and ended up 2: 10.7 minutes behind the victorious world champion Norway. Belarus came in second, ahead of France. The team of the German Ski Association was 9.4 seconds short of the podium.
Starting runner Rees again showed a strong performance. One day after his fifth place in the sprint, he only had one spare and handed over to Doll in third. Doll needed three extra cartridges to shoot, but stayed in third position. In her home in Thuringia, Voigt only made a mistake at the shooting range, but could not keep up on the trail and fell back to fourth place. At this point Norway had built a big lead that no one could catch up. The German final runner Hinz could not do anything more forward.
In the single-mixed relay, Franziska Hildebrand and Erik Lesser clearly missed a podium after taking the lead in the end.
Successful snowboarder between joy and anger
Snowboarder Stefan Baumeister is still in top form a few weeks before the start of the Winter Olympics. After his triumph in Carezza in December, the 28-year-old Bavarian raced in second place in the parallel giant slalom in Scuol, Switzerland. The athlete from SC Aising-Pasing got stuck in the lead at the penultimate gate and landed in deep snow. The victory went to the Russian Dmitri Loginov. “My mood at the moment: half joy, half anger. I’m happy about second place. But I could have won today and taken the lead in the overall World Cup,” said Baumeister after the race.
Two combiners stand on the podium
The German Nordic combined athletes Vinzenz Geiger and Eric Frenzel took advantage of the absence of top star Jarl Magnus Riiber and made it onto the podium in Val di Fiemme. After a jump and the following ten-kilometer run, Geiger took second place after winning the final sprint 0.2 seconds ahead of Frenzel, who was third on the day. Victory in Italy was secured by the Austrian Johannes Lamparter, who also started the cross-country ski run as the leader. Riiber sat out on Saturday due to back problems. The Norwegian had dominated the season so far and won all competitions in which he had participated.
Behind Geiger and Frenzel, the German team achieved further top ten placements: Johannes Rydzek was fifth, Fabian Rießle was tenth. National coach Hermann Weinbuch faces a tough selection process in view of the high density of top athletes with a view to the Olympic Games in Beijing (February 4th to 20th).
Friedrich says goodbye to Germany with victory
Francesco Friedrich won the last two-man bobsleigh World Cup in Germany before the Olympics. The double Olympic champion won in Winterberg with pusher Alexander Schüller and improved his own track record in the first run from 55.02 to 54.89 seconds. In the second run he drove exactly the same time and prevailed with a total of 0.33 seconds ahead of Johannes Lochner. The Berchtesgadener starting for Stuttgart drove with Florian Bauer. Third place went to Canadian Justin Kripps. Christoph Hafer, who started with Matthias Sommer, finished fifth.
Laura Nolte finished third in the Monobob World Cup on her home track in Winterberg. As in the race in December in Hochsauerland, US driver Elana Meyers Taylor won the race. Breeana Walker from Australia came in second. Two-man bobsleigh Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka from BRC Thuringia came in ninth. Wiesbaden’s Kim Kalicki declined to start in the monobob.
“I tried something at the start of the first run today, we’re still testing so that everything is in place in Beijing. It’s going in the right direction. I know that if I eliminate the little things, Beijing can also do better.” said Nolte.
Two-seaters dominate in Sigulda
The Thuringian two-seaters Toni Eggert / Sascha Benecken have won the second win of the season at the Luge World Cup in Sigulda. After two disappointing races with 13th and 20th place in the past World Cups, the best German duo prevailed against the overall World Cup leaders Andris and Juris Sics from Latvia. Third came the second German double with Tobias Wendl / Tobias Arlt. The Winterberger duo Robin Geueke / David Gamm only came 17th. In the overall classification, Eggert / Benecken remain in second place ahead of Wendl / Arlt.
Sprinters miss EM medal
The German sprinters just missed a medal at the European speed skating championships in Heerenveen, the Netherlands. Nico Ihle, Joel Dufter and Moritz Klein finished fourth in the non-Olympic team sprint at the start of the second day of competition. In 1: 20.72 minutes, the trio was only 0.19 seconds slower than the third-placed team from Poland. European champions were the favored Dutch in 1: 19.71 minutes ahead of Norway (1: 19.83). For the European Championship hosts it was the fourth title in the fifth competition.