Doll awards silver very late: biathletes miss Herrmann’s gold wave

Doll awards silver very late
Biathletes miss Herrmann’s gold wave

Denise Herrmann wins gold for the German biathletes on Monday. The following day the gentlemen go away empty-handed. Things are looking very good for Benedikt Doll for a long time. At the last shooting, however, he awards silver. A Frenchman becomes an Olympic champion.

The German biathlon men were not able to repeat the gold coup of Olympic champion Denise Herrmann in the individual. Benedikt Doll was the best of the four German starters in sixth place in Zhangjiakou and missed his chances of winning a medal with two missed shots, the last one in a standing position robbed him of a possible silver medal.

“I don’t really know whether I should cry or be happy now,” said Doll on ARD, but he was more concerned with his first mistake in the prone position: “Of course it was a good race, but you can tell from the placement buy very little.”

Speedy Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet, despite two penalties, clinched the Olympic victory in the 20K race, where each missed shot carries a penalty minute, ahead of the clean-shooting Anton Smolski of Belarus, 14.8 seconds back. Norway’s star Johannes Thingnes Boe saved bronze after two missed targets, 31.1 seconds back. He had won gold in the supreme discipline four years ago.

Doll was 1:07.1 minutes behind, Roman Rees was seventh with 1:21.6 minutes more than the winner with only one shooting error. “Top eight was within the realm of possibility,” said the 28-year-old: “That’s why it was an all-round successful race for me.” Erik Lesser and Johannes Kühn had no chance after early mistakes. Kühn withdrew from the medal race at the first shooting and missed two more after the first attempt. As in the women’s singles, the conditions were better because the wind wasn’t blowing so hard. In the end, the 30-year-old from Reit im Winkl, who had already been successful in the sprint in the World Cup this winter, even collected six penalty minutes.

Too many errors, too slow

Doll also immediately missed a prone shot, and only a little later Lesser, who won silver in Sochi eight years ago, made three standing mistakes after a flawless start and thus lost all his chances. Flown to China with renewed confidence after his World Cup victory just before the Olympics, Doll could have come close to a medal but missed a target in the final standing stage. Rees, with just one penalty, was the top German shooter, but not fast enough for a top spot.

Johannes Thingnes Bö, who had saved Norway the gold in the mixed relay, made a mistake while lying down and chased the Russian Maxim Zwetkow, who had started ahead of him, who shot flawlessly for a long time, but was not that fast on the track. There, the biathlon superstar from Norway overtook before the second shooting and tried to increase his lead.

Bö also made a mistake in the last shooting, but because Zwetkow missed the 20th shot, the Russian missed the chance of a possible Olympic victory. In the end, Zwetkow was 3.8 seconds short of bronze. Fillon Maillet was even faster. The 29-year-old stormed to the top almost unnoticed, despite making two blunders on the shooting range. In the mixed relay on Saturday he had to admit defeat in the final sprint. Smolski was rewarded for his flawless shooting with the silver medal – Doll would have liked that too.

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